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UEPORT 



MANUAL LABOR 



LITERARY INSTITUTIONS. 



1833. 



TO THE BENEVOLENT. 

This Report is designed mainly for gratuitous distribution. The Executive 
Committee (with the aid of those benevolent individuals to whom it is sent, or 
such as they may interest) are desirous of giving it as extensive circulation as 
possible. The object of the Society is entirely philanthropic and public ; its 
operations thus far, have been sustained by the contributions of a few ; the Com- 
mittee are persuaded that many, on reading this Report of their Agent, will feel 
it a privilege to co-operate with the Society in enabling them to distribute through- 
out the country a document of such a practical value. 

Copies will be furnished, (or, what may in many cases be more convenient, 
distributed by mail according to order,) on application to J. Leavitt, Bookseller, 
.348 Broadway, or to S. W. Benedict & Co. 162 Nassau-street, N. Y. agents of 
the Society. Price 25 cents single ; $2 50 per dozen, $16 00 per hundred. 
New-York, March 20, 1833. 




FIKST 



ANNUAL REPORT 



■ r 

OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 



MANUAL LABOR 

IN LITERARY INSTITUTIONS, 
\ 

INCLtPlNO 

THE REPORT OF THEIR GENERAL AGENT, 

THEODORE D. WELD. 

JANUARY 28, 1S33. 



NEW-YORK S. W. BENEDICT &. CO. 162 NASSAU STREET, 

MDCCCXXXIir. 



'^^S^Postage— 3 sheets periodical, not over lOO niiled 12 cents ; any greater. distance 20 cents.] 



L'^ i'^^^ 



rEntered according to act of congress, in the year 1833, byGEORGK Douglass, 
treasuL anfin SS o'f the " Society for Promoting Manual Labor m Lite- 
rarrinstiSi" in the Clerk's Office of the Southern Distnct of New^York.] 



CONTENTS. 

"^ Introductory Statement by the Executive Committee, 

Officers of the Society, ' '.T. 

•^ vui 

MR. WELD S RKPORT TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Statement of Genera! Operations, q 

God's Revelation upon the Subject of Education,....'...",'..".. in 

The only rational Basis for a System of Education,... T.. iV 

Mutual Influences of Body and Mind '.''_'_"_" j| 

Body and Mind should be educated together, ."......'......'...'.' 13 

Present System of Education makes Man a Monster,.'..."..."."....'.' 73 

This Defect in the present System not a new Discov'erv 14 

Opinions of Milton, Locke, Jahn, and others, '.7.. 14 

Neglect of Physical Education in the present System,"!'"! 15 

Testimony of Physicians and Literary Men, 15 

Havoc of Health and Life occasioned by the present System 17 

Testimony, ' ,„ 

Insufficient Exercise main Cause of these Evils, !!!!""!! 24 

Testimony of Physicians, 04 

Importance of Exercise for Health, ..........!!.. 25 

Testimony of Physicians, .'.....'.'.....". ""'25 

Present System of Education effijminates the Mind,.......!."....!.'."...!.'..".'. 27 

Testimony, nn 

Mental Activity promoted by Bodily Motion, 3I 

Bodily Activity of eminent Men, !.!....!!...!!!!...!!!. 31 

Testimony, 00 

Present System of Education perilous to Morals, !!!!.!!!!!.!!!!!..'....... ".34 

Testimony, ; 04 

Sufficient Exercise a preventive of Moral Evils, !.!!!!!!!!!!! 36 

Testimony, ' 07 

Present System indisposes to Effiart and destroys Habits of Activity "and 

Industry, on 

Present System Anti-rejpublican in its practical Effects, .!!!!.!!!!..!!!...!!. 40 

Present System expensive, "^q 

Present System makes Labor disreputable, '....."...'...'....'.'.'! 41 

Exercise should be alternated with Study, !.....! 42 

Exercise should be taken daily, aq 

Testimony, ^o 

General Rule for Exercise Three Hours daily, 43 

Testimony, a a 

Three Hours Exercise daily will not retard progress in Study, !!!!!!!!!46 

Testimony, aq 

Exercise should be taken at different periods of the Day, !!!!!!!!!!!51 

General Rules for the Regulation of Exercise, ....'....".'..!51 

Exercise should be moderate, 5I 

Military Exercise, 52 

Gymnastic Exercise, 52 

Objections to Gymnastics, ; 53 

Manual Labor System of Exercise, 56 

It is natural, 5g 

It interests the Mind, 56 

Its moral Effect is favorable, !.!!57 

It furnishes important practical Acquisitions, 58 

It promotes habits of Industry, 58 

It promotes Independence of Character, 58 

It promotes Originality, 59 

It renders prominent all the manlier Features of Character, 59 



It affords Facilities in acquiring a Knowledge of Human Nature, 60 

It greatly diminishes the Expense oi Education, 60 

It increases the Wealth of the Country, 63 

It tends to do away absurd Distinctions in Society...... _ bi 

It would give Permanence to our Republican Institutions, 64 

Comparative Claims of Agricultural and Mechanical Labor, 64 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

Clownishness, „„ 

Slovenliness, „„ 

Dullness of Intellect ^' 

Testimony of Dr. Bell, °° 

Objections to making Labor a Requisition, '^ 

High-Souled Men above Labor! • 'J% 

Exercise will never be taken regularly unless made a Requisition, 7o 

Testimony, 

A Supposition, • ••; "■•■•••■" ." „q 

Arrangement of Hours of study in Colleges unfavorable to Bodily Exercise,... 7» 

Testimony of Professor Hitchcock...... •• '^ 

Alledged interference of Manual Labor Schools with others, o" 

Alledged impracticability of the Manual Labor System, -Si 

Estimation in which the System is held by Teachers and Students of Manual^^ 

Labor Schools, - „p. 

Testimony from Personal Observation and Experience, oo 

Estimation in which the System is held by the Community, »» 

Testimony of Literary Men, °^ 

OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS. 

Misconception of the Design of the System, 9| 

Precipitancy •• q^ 

Imperfect Knowledge of the Details of the System, »* 

Misjudgment in the Kind of Labor, ^| 

Unfavorable Location, -^ 

Inefficiency, ••• — :""' '-^ir "^ qs 

Teachers forgetting that Actions speak louder than Words, »» 

Making Labor optional, _ 

Promiscuous Admission of Students, »" 

Inadequate Means, ••■■• y^",""]^'\'"\ 07 

Measures preparatory to the Establishment of Manual Labor Schools, 97 

Injudicious multiplication of Manual Labor Schools «» 

Endowment of existing Manual Labor Schools the first duty, 99 

Manual Labor system retarded by local rivalry, ^^^J 

Conclusion, 

APPENDIX. 

Study of Physiology a desideratum in Literary Institutions, 101 

Extract of a letter from Dr. BeU..... 

Dr. Caldwell, :J"* 

Dr. Cooke, 1^^ 

Dr. Brown, |^o 

Dr. Finley, !"^ 

Dr. Mussey, j"^ 

Dr. Ives, J"^ 

Extract of a letter from Professor Green, JfJ 

u u Rev. John Frost, ^^* 

Rev. John Todd, • 115 

» .t Hon. Thomas S. Grimke, Ai7 

B. Badger Esq 11^ 

Professor Steele, i^° 

.c « Rev. Austin Dickinson }_j-° 

» " A Clergyman in Maine, 1^9 

u » ACollege Professor, !■<«" 



JL 



INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 



The Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary 
Institutions was formed in July, 1831, under the conviction 
that a reform in our seminaries of learning was greatly needed, 
both for the preservation of health and for giving energy to the 
character by habits of vigorous and useful exercise. The Ex- ^ 
ecutive Committee, at an early day, appointed Mr. Theodore 
D. Weld to be General Agent of the Society, for the term of one \ 
year; and were highly gratified by his acceptance of the office. 
Mr. Weld had been for several years a member of the Oneida 
Institute, one of the oldest and most successful Manual Labor 
schools in the country, and was therefore not only strongly im- 
pressed in favor of the system, but also entirely familiar with 
its details and its practical results. 

In laying out a plan of operations for the Agent, the Com- 
mittee derived great aid from the ready invention, extensive ob- 
servation, and sound practical wisdom of their esteemed associate, 
the Rev. EUas Cornelius, whose removal from this world soon 
after the commencement of our operations, was felt to be a great 
loss to the cause of Manual Labor, as it was to all other depart- 
ments of Christian enterprise and benevolence. In this partic- 
ular branch of effort^ he is entitled to the honor of having been 
a pioneer. His labors in connexion with the American Edu- 
cation Society, necessarily brought to his notice the fearful waste 
of health and hfe produced in this country by the process of 
liberal education, without systematic exercise. His benevolent 
spirit grieved over the sufferings of the individuals, and the loss 



to the common stock of intellect ; and his inventive and fear- 
less mind led him at an early period to assume the responsi- 
bility of presenting to the public the Manual Labor System, as 
an adequate preventive of these direful evils. 

The instructions to Mr. Weld led him through an extensive 
tour of observation in the Northern and Western states. His jour- 
ney met vv^ith two serious interruptions, by accidents befalling the 
public stage, both fairly attributable to the evil influence of ardent 
spirits. The first was the overturning of the carriage on a high 
bank near New-Haven, Conn., by which the Agent was so bruised 
as to be detained nearly a week. The other, still more serious, 
was the carrying away of the stage in Alum Creek, near Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. The creek being swollen by the great flood, in 
crossing at midnight the swiftness of the current forced the whole 
down the stream, till the stage wagon came to pieces, and Mr. W. 
was thrown directly among the horses. After being repeatedly 
struck down by their struggles, he became entangled in the har- 
ness, and hurried with them along the current. At length, 
released from this peril, he reached the shore and grasped a 
root in the bank ; but it broke, and again the stream bore him 
on to the middle of the channel. At length he espied a tree 
which had fallen so that its top lay in the water, and by the 
most desperate eflforts, all encumbered as he was with his travel- 
ing garments, he succeeded in reaching a branch ; but his be- 
numbed hands refused their grasp, and slipped, and then he was 
swept among some bushes in an eddy, where his feet rested on 
the ground. Here, in the dead of night, in the forest, ignorant 
whether there was a house or a human being within many 
miles, bruised and chilled in the wintry stream, he seems calmly 
to have made up his mind to die, sustained by the hopes of the 
religion he professed. But Providence had determined other- 
wise, and reserved him for farther usefulness. His cries were 
heard by a kind-hearted woman on the opposite side of tlie 



Vll 



stream, who waked her husband, and he, with two others, came 
to his rescue, and after a few days detention, he proceeded on 
his journey. From the accounts which are already before the 
pubhc, it seems plain that nothing but a constitution invigorated 
by manual labor, and a soul sustained by the grace of God, 
could have survived the hardships of that night. 

After this, Mr. Weld visited most of the large towns and 
leading literary institutions in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, prosecuting his 
inquiries, and calling public attention to the Manual Labor System. 

Wherever the Agent went, he was kindly received, and we 
are satisfactorily assured that his labors were successful in great- 
ly increasing the public interest in favor of Manual Labor in 
Literary Institutions. 

Mr. Weld having been already known as a successful advo- 
- k 
cate of the Temperance cause, he was invited in several places 

to deliver a course of lectures on this subject, before exhibiting 

the claims of the Manual Labor System in public. Finding 

that in this way more interest was excited in his main errand, 

and much larger audiences were drawn together to hear what 

was to be said on Manual Labor, he continued the same course, 

and the Committee believe that great good has been done to 

each cause by thus blending them together. 

By his personal inquiries and an extensive correspondence, 
Mr. Weld has succeeded in collecting a mass of facts and testi- 
monies on the subject of Manual Labor, some of the most im- 
portant of which are embodied in the following document. This 
was submitted to the Committee on the 28th of January last, and 
by them approved, and is now published and recommended to 
general attention, as a document of incalculable value to human- 
ity, education, and religion. The Committee unanimously voted 
their thanks to Mr. Weld for his arduous labors and his able 



report. In this sentiment of gratitude and obligation, we doubt 
not an intelligent public will fully concur. And if this system 
shall be generally adopted in our country, not only will the pres- 
ent age be benefitted by it, but generations yet unborn will 

duly appreciate its advantages. 

S. V. S. WILDER, Chairman, Ex. Com. 
JOSHUA LEAVITT, Cor. Sec. 



OFFICERS 

Of the Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions. 



PRESIDENT, 

ZECHARIAH LEWIS, Esq. 



VICE PRESIDENTS, 

Hon. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, 
Rev. JAMES MILNOR, D. D. 

SETH P. STAPLES, Esq. 
Rev. JEREMIAH DAY, D. D. LL. D. 
Rev. JAMES M. MATHEWS, D D. 
Hon. WILLIAM JAY. 



TREASURER, 

deorge I)ou§la§§, Esq. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, 

Rev. Josliua licavitt. 

MANAGERS, 

S V. S. Wilder, Esq. ' Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D. D. 
Rev George W. Gale, Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, 

W. C. WooDBRiDGE, Esq. Mr. Cornelius Baker, 

Rev. Elias Cornelius,* Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D. 

Mr. Lewis Tappan, Dr. Alfred C. 1 osx. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 

Messrs. Wilder, Tappan, Cox, Douglass and Leavitt. 



REPORT. 



To THE Executive Committee of " The Society for Promoting 

Manual Labor in Literary Institutions :" 
Gentlemen : 

It is now a year since I accepted your appointment, and entered 
upon the discharge of my duties as General Agent of "The Society 
for promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions." 

In compliance with your instructions, institutions of learning have 
been visited ; literary men in various parts of the country have been 
conferred with in person, and very extensively by correspondence ; 
a great variety of details and practical results, together with a mass 
of testimony from the personal observation and experience of many 
eminent literary and medical men, has been collected. 

These, with much other testimony from the most respectable 
sources, I design to embody in this communication, arranged under 
various heads, and interspersed with such remarks, suggestions, and 
inferences, as may seem appropriate to each topic as it passes under 
review. 

In the instructions received upon the acceptance of my appoint, 
ment, the Committee say, "We wish you to keep a minute and accu- 
rate journal of your tour, embracing all the facts which you collect, 
with such remarks and inferences as you may think proper." During 
the first two months of my agency this request was complied with. 
I took copious notes, gathered many important facts, specific details, 
and much testimony, and connected with them such remarks of my 
own as occasion suggested. This document was lost with my bag- 
gage at the time of my accident in Ohio, last February. I should 
have recommenced the Journal, but, for some weeks after that event, 
the manual effort required in writing was so painful as to forbid much 
use of the pen. So much time had elapsed before acquiring adequate 
muscular control, that I deemed it expedient to keep the Committee 
advised of my movements by frequent letters, rather than to commence 
a regular journal at so late a period of my agency. I state this fact in 
explanation of the course which I have pursued, and as my apology. 



/ 



10 

For the particular detail of my operations during the year, the Com- 
mittee are respectfully referred to the official communications which 
have from time to time been transmitted to the Corresponding Secre- 
tary. 

In prosecuting the business of m.y agency, I have traveled during 
the year four thousand five hundred and seventy-five miles ; in pubhc 
conveyances, 2,630; on horseback, 1800; on foot, 145. I have 
made two hundred and thirty-six public addresses. Of these, one 
hundred and ten were upon the subject of manual labor education, 
ninetv-seven upon temperance, and the remainder upon general edu- 
cation and other topics of pubUc interest.* I have written two 
hundred and eighty-two letters upon the business of the Society, and 
received more than that number, many of which being applications 
for personal services, have remained unanswered, from utter inability 
to command the requisite time. I have been laid aside from my 
agency two weeks during the year by the providence of God ; a part 
of the time on account of an injury received by the overturning of the 
stage soon after leaving New-York, and the remainder by the occur- 
rence in Ohio already noticed. Most of the year has been spent in 
traveling through the western and south-western states. The object 
of my agency has been eveiy where regarded with pecuhar favor, 
and my heart bids me add, that I have experienced largely that hos- 
pitality and kindness which have always distinguished the new world 
of the West. 

Having disposed of preliminaries, I now proceed to a consideration 
of the general subject of manual labor education. 

God has revealed his will to man upon the subject of education, 
and has furnished every human being with a copy of the revelation. 
It is written in the language of nature, and can be understood without 
a commentary. This revelation consists in the universal conscious- 
ness of those influences which body and mind exert upon each other — 
influences innumerable, incessant, and all controlUng ; the body con- 



* I deemed it both a duty and a privilege to comply with invitations to speak 
in public upon all subjects connected vs^ith the general good, whenever it could 
be done without interference with the business of my agency. In some places I 
have spoken eight and ten times in succession upon the subject of temperance, 
often twice, and occasionally three times a day. Thus the subject of manual 
labor education has been discussed before much larger audiences than could have 
been gathered if my lectures had not been preceded by others, and in that way a 
general attendance secured from the commoncerasnt. By pursuing this course, 
much more has been effected in the cause of manual labor than could have been 
done if my time had been devoted exclusively to that object. 



11 

tinually modifying the state of the mind, and the mind ever varying 
the condition of the body. These two make up the compound which 
we call man ; not the body alone, not the mind alone, but both con- 
joined in one by mutual laws. These mutual laws form the only 
rational basis for a system of ■^ucatwn. A system based upon any 
thing else is wrong in its first principles ; its combinations are incon- 
gruities, its tendencies are perversions, and its results, i-uin. True, the 
body has no value intrinsically, but its connection with the mind gives 
it infinite worth. Every man who has marked the reciprocal action 
of body and mind surely need not be told that mental and physical 
training should go together. 

Even the shghtest change in the condition of the body often produces 
an effect upon the mind so sudden and universal, as to seem miracu- 
lous. The body is the mind's palace ; but darken its windows, and 
it is a prison. It is the mind's instrument ; sharpened, it cuts keenly; 
blunted, it can only bruise and disfigure. It is the mind's reflector ; 
if bright, it flashes day ; if dull, it diffixses twilight. It is the mind's 
servant ; if robust, it moves with swift pace upon its errands ; if a 
cripple, it hobbles on crutches. We attach infinite value to the mind, 
and justly ; but in I his world it is good for nothing without the body. 
Can a man think without the brain ? Can he feel without nerves ? 
Can he move without muscles ? If not, let him look well to the con- 
dition of his brain, nerves, and muscles. The ancients were right in 
the supposition that an unsound body is incompatible ,with a sound mind. 

Climate, by its influence upon the body, produces endless diversi- 
ties of mind. Compare the timid, indolent, vivacious, and irritable 
inhabitant of the line with the phlegmatic and stupid Greenlander. 
Every man knows how the state of his mind is modified by different 
periods of the day, changes in the weather and the seasons.* He who 
attempts mental effort during a fit of indigestion will cease to wonder 
that Plato located the soul in the stomach. A few drops of water 
upon the face, or a feather burnt under the nostril of one in a swoon, 
awakens the mind from its deep sleep of unconsciousness. A shght 
impression made upon a nerve often breaks the chain of thought, and 
the mind tosses in tumult. Let a peculiar vibration quiver upon the 
nerve of hearing, and a tide of wild emotion rushes over the soul. 

" By turns they feel the glowing mind 
Disturbed, delighted, raised, refined." 

* It is a well known fact, that almost all the suicides which take place in London 
and Paris are committed during the rainy season. 



} 



12 

Strike up the Marseillais in the streets of Paris, and you lash the 
populace into fury. Sing the Ranz des Vaches to the Swiss sol- 
diery, and they gush into tears. The man who can think with a gnat 
in his eye, or reason while the nerve of a tooth is twinging, or when 
his stomach is nauseated, or when his lungs are oppressed and labor, 
ing ; he who can give wing to his imagination when shivering with 
cold, or fainting with heat, or worn down with toil, can claim exemp- 
tion from the common lot of humanity. I In different periods of life, 
the mind waxes and wanes with the body ; in youth, cheerful, full of 
daring, quick to see, and keen to feel ; in old age, desponding, timid, 
perception dim, and emotion languid. When the blood circulates 
with unusual energy, the coward rises into a hero ; when it creeps 
feebly, the hero sinks into a coward. 

" His coward lips did from their color fly." 

The effects produced by different states of the mind upon the body 
are equally sudden and powerful. Plato used to say, that " all the dis- 
eases of the body proceed from the soul," The expression of the 
countenance is 7nind visible. Bad news weakens the action of the 
heart, oppresses the lungs, destroys appetite, stops digestion, and 
partially suspends all the functions of the system. An emotion of 
shame flushes the face ; fear blanches it ; joy illuminates it, and an 
instant thrill electrifies a million nerves. Surprise spurs the pulse 
into a gallop. Delirium infuses giant energy. Volition commands, 
and hundreds of muscles spring to execute. Powerful emotion often 
kills the body at a stroke. Chile, Diagoras, and Sophocles, died of 
joy at the Elean games. The news of a defeat killed Philip V. 
One of the popes died of an emotion of the ludicrous, on seeing his 
pet monkey robed in pontificals, and occupying the chair of state. 
Muley Moluck was carried upon the field of battle in the last stages 
of an incurable disease. Upon seeing his army give way, he leaped 
from the litter, rallied his panic stricken troops, rolled back the tide 
of battle, shouted victory, and died. The door-keeper of Congress 
expired upon hearing of the surrender of CornwalUs. Eminent pubUc 
speakers have often died, either in the midst of an impassioned burst 
of eloquence, or when the deep emotion that produced it had suddenly 
subsided. The late Mr. Pinckney of Baltimore, Mr. Emmet of New- 
York, and the Hon. Ezekiel Webster of New-Hampshire, are recent 
instances. Lagrave, the young Parisian, died a few months since, 



13 

when he heard that the musical prize for which he had competed was 
adjudged to another. The recent case of Hills in New-York is fresh 
in the memory of all. He was apprehended for theft, taken before 
the police, and though in perfect health, mental agony forced the 
blood from his nostrils. He was carried out, and died, 
j The experience of every day demonstrates that the body and mind 
are endowed with such mutual susceptibilities, that each is alive to 
the slightest influence of the other. What is the common sense 
inference from this fact? Manifestly this : that the body and the 
mind should he educated together. The states of the body are infir~| 
nitely various. All these different states differently aflect the mind. 
They are causes, and their effects have all the variety which mark 
the causes that produce them. If then different conditions of the 
body differently affect the mind, some electrifying, and others para- 
lyzing its energies, what duty can be plainer than to preserve the body 
in that condition which will most favorably affect the mind. If the 
Maker of both was infinitely wise, then the highest permanent perfec- 
tion of the mind can be found only in connection with the most health- ^ 
ful state of the body. Has infinite wisdom established laws by which 
the best condition of the mind is permanently connected with any other 
than the best condition of the body? When all the bodily functions 
are perfectly performed, the mind must be in a better state than when^^ 
these functions are imperfectly performed. And now I ask, is not 
that system of education fundamentally defective, which makes no 
provision for putting the body in its best condition, and for keeping it 
in that condition? — a system which expends its energies upon the 
mind alone, and surrenders the body either to the irregular prompt- 
ings of perverted instinct, or to the hap-hazard impulses of chance 
or necessity? — a system which aims solely at the development of - 
mind, and yet overlooks those very principles which are indispensable 
to produce that development, and transgress those very laws which 
constitute the only groundwork of rational education? - 

Such a system sunders what God has joined together, and impeaches 
the wisdom which pronounced that union good. It destroys the sym- 
metry of human proportion, and makes man a monster. It reverses 
the order of the constitution ; commits outrage upon its principles ; 
breaks up its reciprocities ; makes war alike upon physical heaUh and 
intellectual energy, dividing man against himself; arming body and 
mind in mutual hostility, and prolonging the conflict until each falls 
a prey to the other, and both surrender to ruin. 



14 

We repeat the assertion : the best condition of the mental powers 
cannot be found permanently connected with any other than the best 
condition of the bodily powers, and this both as a matter of philosophy 
and fact. If this be true, the system of education which is generally 
pursued in the United States is unphilosophical in its elementary 
principles ; ill adapted to the condition of man ; practically mocks his 
necessities, and is intrinsically absurd. The high excellencies of the 
present system in other respects are fully appreciated. Modern edu- 
cation has indeed achieved wonders. It has substituted things for 
names, experiment for hypothesis, first principles for arbitrary rules. 
It has simplified processes ; stripped knowledge of its abstraction, and 
thrown it into visibility ; made practical results rather than mystery 
the standard by which to measure the value of attainment, and facts 
/ratjjer than conjecture its circulating medium- 
All this is cheerfully admitted. But what has been done mean- 
|. while for the body If What provision has been made for the daily 
wants of its muscles and nerves? What aids have been furnished to 
the organs of digestion, secretion, and circulation ? What means 
have been provided for preserving the body in its best condition, and 
thus not only giving healthful energy to its functions, but securing to 
the mind that permanent vigor which results from such a condition of 
the bodily organs ? What recognition has been made of those irre- 
pealable laws which connect the mind with a physical organization, 
and which graduate its states by the condition of that organization ? 
y'' In fine, how has modern education been giving practical testimony to 
the fact that man is a compound — a creature of flesh as well as intel- 
lect ? Has it been by dividing him in twain, cultivating one half with 
unremitting care, and leaving the other to stagnate in the torpor of 
inaction, or to glean a momentary energy from the contingencies of 
chance 1 Has it been by giving birth to an order of things in which 
a sound mind with a sound body is already a rare union, and is fast 
becoming an anomaly ? If these are its witnesses, the world is full of 
them ; and the utterance of their testimony is as the voice of many 
waters. The prevailing neglect of the body in the present system of 
education, is a defect for which no excellence can atone. This is not a 
recent discovery. Two centuries ago, Milton wrote a pamphlet upon 
this subject addressed to Samuel Hartlib, Esq., of London, in which 
he eloquently urged the connection of physical with mental education 
in literary institutions. Locke inveighs against it in no measured 
terms. Since that time, Jahn, Ackerman, Salzman, and Franck, in 



15 

Gerpiany, Tissot^ Rousseau, and Londe, in France, have all written 
largely upon the subject. To these may be added the celebrated Fel- 
^^L^^^g' the veteran Swiss educator, and the apostle of modern edu- 
cation.* 

In our own country the imperfections of the present system have 
been lamented by our most eminent men. Forty years ago. Dr. \ y^ 
Rush of Philadelphia, published his views at length, recommending 
the connection of agricultural and mechanical labor with literary insti- 
tutions, and saying, "the student should work with his own hands in 
the intervals of study." More recently, much has been written upon 
the subject. President Lindsley of the Nashville University, Profes- 
sor Mitchell of the Medical College of Ohio, Professor Harris of the 
Medical Institution of Philadelphia, President Fisk of the Wesleyan 
University, Professor Hitchcock of Amherst College, the late Mr. 
Cornelius, and many others, have publicly and with solemn earnest- 
ness, borne their testimony against this feature of the prevailing sys- 
tem, and have exhorted the community to cast about in earnest for the 
appropriate remedy. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to call your attention to the following 
extracts, all going to show that the evils resulting from this defect in 
the present system are felt to be well nigh intolerable : 

" When we consider how many minds have long been engaged on the the- 
ory and practice of education — minds, too, which were deeply interested in 
the results of their labors, it is surely not a little remarkable, that for ages 
they should have overlooked the very first and most essential condition of suc- 
cess ; I mean the necessity of cultivating the body. Thus, if we except the 
first quarter of the present century, nothing worth naming has been done for 
the body, since the days of antiquity. Our surprise on this subject would be :/ 
less, if the striking advantages of training the body had not been demonstrated 
to us of old, and recorded for our instruction ; our surprise would be less too, 
if we had ever succeeded in education without this training, and if for centu- 
ries past we had not been constantly fading in our efforts to perfect human 
beings without it." 

American Journal of Education. 

" It seems to me to be a settled point, that some change must be effected in 
our colleges in respect to the time allotted to exercise, I cannot believe that 
the guardians of these institutions wiU rest satisfied with the present system 
much longer. Almost any system that can be proposed, has fewer difficulties 
and objections than that which prevails in our New-England colleges generally ; 
and therefore my conscience would not rest easy until I had borne my testi- 
mony against it." 

Professor Hitchcock on Physical Culture. 

* See " Sketches of Hofwyl," in the " Annals of Education," written by the 
able editor of that invaluable periodical during a year's residence among the 
scenes which he so interestingly describes. 



16 

"Colleges and universities have long been consecrated to literary ease, 
indulgence, and refinement. In them, mind only is attempted to be cultivated, 
to the entire neglect of the bodily faculties. This is a radical defect, so obvi- 
ous and striking, too, as to admit of no«.pology or defence." 

President Lindsley^s Inaugural Address. 

"The truth is, that the founders and governors of most seminaries of learn- 
ing have made no positive provision w^hatever for taking exercise. Their 
laws and regulations are silent in regard to it. If the student is disposed to 
exercise three hours a day, and can contrive to gain time by stealth, or m some 
other way, he can enjoy the privilege ; but he derives little or no encourage- 
ment either from the authority or the example of his superiors, and hence he 
is easily discouraged from making any systematic attempts. There must be 
a change in this respect. Instructors and overseers of hterary and profes- 
sional schools must give to exercise 5, prominent place in their arrangements ; 
they must make room for it in the regular employments of each day, and 
throw the weight of their whole influence into the scale in favor it, or it is to 
be feared that systematic exercise can never be associated permanently with 
the studies of those who are placed under their care." 

Cornelius' Address before the Mechanical Association in Andover. 

"Let me conclude by intreating your attention to a revision of the existing 
plans of education, in what relates to the preservation of health. Too much 
of the time of the better educated part of young persons is in my humble 
opinion devoted to literary pursuits and sedentary occupations, and too little 
to the acquisition of the corporeal powers indispensable to make the former 
practically useful. If the present system does not undergo some change, I 
much apprehend we shall see a degenerate and sinking race, such as came to 
exist among the higher classes in France before the revolution, and such as 
now deforms a large part of the noblest families in Spain." 

Dr. Warner of Boston on " Physical Culture." 

"We are satisfied by intimate experience, and we may add by personal suf- 
fering, that sad injustice is done to human nature in the common systems of 
education, by a neglect of suitable and regular physical exercise." 

Journal of Health. 

"Education is the proper development of the powers of both body and mind, 
and not as it is now practically defined, the culture of the mind to the neglect 
and permanent injury of the body." „ „, ., ^ looo 

Health Almanac jor I066. 

"When we remember * * * the destruction of health that is so fre- 
quent an accompaniment of study, it behoves us, as patriots and philanthropists, 
to arrest the existing evil, and to establish a better order of things." 

Professor Mitchell's ''Hints to Students." 

"I think that our whole system of education for the mind is too much built 
upon excitement and over activity. Half of our most promising youths have 
their physical, and often their intellectual powers broken down, or enfeebled, 
before they arrive at manhood." 

Judge Story of the U. S. Supreme Court. 

"I have long been so deeply impressed with regard to the necessity of some 
change in our system of education, especially of mmisterial education, that I 



17 

have been thankful for every attempt to throvi^ into it something in the shape 
of physical culture." 

Rev. Dr. Tyng, Philadelphia. 

"Most of our present systems are directed to the intellectual faculties, with- 
out any reference to the fact that the mind is incased in a body, through which 
is communicated every impression it receives." 

Dr. James C. Bliss, New-York. 

" The almost entire neglect of physical education in this country threatens 
dangerous and lasting consequences." 

•' Influence of Mental Cultivation on Health." By Dr. A. Brigham, Hartford. 

"I have long entertained a persuasion, which grows stronger and stronger 
every day, that there has been an essential error in the system of education 
in this country in regard to the subject in question' [physical education.] I 
had hoped that the visit of Spurzeim to this country, who was accustomed to 
speak with great feeling and eloquence on this point, and often deplored the 
mistalce committed in this country of doing too little for the bodily vigor of 
our youth, would have had a salutary influence. I trust that what he said 
win not be wholly lost, and that your society will effect the desired good." 
Professor Ware, Cambridge University, Mass. 

" Our schools for the most part pay not the smallest attention to the formation 
of the body. But that it is not a part of their plan, is an unpardonable fault." 

Professor Salzman, Germany. 

" For many centuries, education has been exclusively directed to the deve- 
lopment of the mental faculties, while the bodily powers have been entirely 
neglected." 

Professor VoelJcer, Germany. 

This is but a fraction of the testimony which might be presented 
upon this subject from our most distinguished literary and scientific 
men. That the evils resulting from the present system may be fully- 
estimated, let us descend to particulars. 

I. The present system of education makes fearful havoc 

OF HEALTH AND LIFE. 

If this position is deemed untenable, the following testimony will 
sufficiently fortify it : 

" The waste of health, and strength, and life, which is daily going on among 
the youth of talent and high promise in every part of our land, is enough to 
make any intelligent observer weep." 

Rev. Dr. Miller, Princeton Thcol. Sem. 

"Youth at most public seminaries are liable to become so eflfeminate, as- 
to be rendered, without some subsequent change of habit, utterly unfit for any 
manly enterprise or employment. How frequently, too, do they fall victims 
to this iU timed system of tenderness and seclusion!" 

President Lindsletfs Inaugural Address. 

"My experience as a student, and also as an instructor, has long since con- 
vinced me that at least nine out of ten, among diligent, industrious students, 

3 



18 

have, in a greater or less degree, suffered the loss of health, by mtense appli- 
cation to study, and a want of proper exercise. When I look over the cata- 
logues of those institutions with which, as a student and an instructor, I have 
been acquainted, and collect together all those whose talents and application 
once promised extensive usefuhiess to the church and the world, my spirit 
mourns, my heart bleeds in contemplating the painful certainty that so large 
a proportion have either already fallen victims to a mistaken regimen, or only 
live to drag out a miserable existence, and admonish the world to profit by 
their mournful example. In short, I cannot but consider a literary institution, 
which makes no provision for the regular exercise of its students, no better 
than a manufactory of invalids, and the slaughter -house of cultivated talent." 

President Cossitt, Cumberland College, Ky. 

" The neglect of exercise has been the ruin of thousands of literary men, and 
has deprived our country of some of its richest ornaments." 

Professor Sewall, Medical College, Washington, D. C. 

"I have never made an estimate of the proportion of close students, who go 
through an entire course of study, without injury of their health in a greater 
or less degree. They are very few, I am sure ; and I am not certain that I 
could name a single exception." 

Rev. Dr. Green, Philadelphia. 

"My opinion is, that not a solitary individual of the above description [close 
students, who go through a thorough course] can be foimd, whose health is 
not impaired in some degree." 

President Chaplin, Waterville College. 

"For those who have not felt the sad evidence of this in years of debility, 
it is sufficient to point to the numbers of literary men, who are annually 
obliged to abandon their pursuits, either partially or entirely, becsuse the body 
is incapable of sustaining the mind in its efforts. They need only observe 
the multitudes of others, who with ample intellectual preparations maintain 
with difficulty an artificial and painful existence, and whose physical debility 
prevents them from exploring depths of science, and soaring to heights of 
speculation, which they feel to be witliin their grasp, but pant in vain to reach." 

American Journal of Education. 

"Though it is but few years since my name was first enrolled on a college 
catalogue, yet, in those few years, of one class of which I was a member, 
one half sleep in the dust; and of another, several, and some of them of the 
first standing, are no more on earth." 

President Fisk, Wesleyan University. 

"It is believed that at least one fourth of those who pass through a course 
of education for the learned professions, sink into a premature grave, or drag 
out a miserable and comparatively useless life, under a broken constitution." 
Rev. Mr, Frost's Oration before the Alumni of Middlebury College. 

"I have a distinct and very painful impression, that but a small part of those 
who are endued with the most active powers of mind, and who make the 
highest acquisitions, entirely escape injury. And in consequence of this 
injury to the constitution, by neglecting proper exercise during the regular 
course of education, I apprehend that a great number of the most inteUigent 
and pious ministers of the gospel fall far short of accomplisliing the degree of 
good which they would have accomplished, had they taken care to guard 



19 

against feeble health and a broken~constitution, not to speak of the numerous 
instances in which men of the highest qualifications bring upon themselves 
premature disease and death, and in the same way." 

Rev. Dr. Woods, Andover Theol. Sem. 

"How to possess "a sound mind in a sound body," is a grand desideratum 
with every student. A thousand facts might be adduced to show that this is 
a blessing seldom enjoyed hy the studious man. He is generally an invalid." 

Trustees of Waterville College. 

"It is an alarming fact, that our seminaries, colleges, universities, &c., are 
annually disgorging themselves of hundreds of subjects, which are only fit to 
pass immediately into hospitals and asylums." 

Sylvester Crraham, Lecturer on Health and Longevity. 

" So far as my personal observation has extended, I should consider it per- 
fectly safe to say, that three fourths of our diligent students impair their health 
by insufficient exercise, and probably it would be nearer the truth to call the 
proportion nine tenths." 

Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudett, Hartford, Con. 

"The instances with us have been very few, in which close students have not, 
in a greater or less degree, impaired their health, who have gone through an 
entire course of study, neglecting at the same time regular and daily exercise." 
Rev. Dr. Kendrich, Professor, Hamilton Theol. Sem. N. Y. 

"I have never known a close student, who did not sooner or later destroy 
himself, if he neglected exercise." 

Professor Keith, Episcopal Theol. Seminary, Alexandria. 

" I should think that a majority of really hard students, as well as a large 
proportion of moderately hard students, have entered life with constitutions 
more or less impaired by want of exercise. I have seen and felt the evil too 
much not to lament it deeply." 

Professor Ware, Cambridge University. 

"How many of our young men fall victims to intense application, before 
they complete their studies ! Others make wrecks of their constitutions, and, 
afler remaining upon the sick list a few years, and performing half service, 
faU into premature graves. Few of them bring from their retirements that 
unbrokenness in their corporeal system which will long sustain them in those 
vigorous efforts which the present exigencies of the church and world so much 
demand." 

President Chapin, Columbian College, Washington. D. C. 

"Upwards of three hundred young men have been received at this mstitu- 
tion during the above mentioned period [fourteen years.] Eight of these died 
before they finished their education. Seventeen others left the institution 
with their health so much impaired that they were obhged to abandon their 
course, and twenty-seven more materially injured their health by the neglect 
of regular exercise ; while a greater number have sustained a less injury." 

Rev. Dr. Kendrich, Professor, Hamilton Theol. Sem., N. Y. 

" A large proportion of diligent, close students with whom I have met, have 
impaired their health and usefulnes by a deficiency or irregularity of exercise. 
Indeed, for several years past, I have been m the habit of looking with a sort 



20 

of surprise upon any thorough and close student whose countenance exhibited 
the rosy clearness and freshness of health, and who had no detail of ailments 
to give. Among the valedictory orators at our colleges whom I have hap- 
pened to know, I think I do not exaggerate when I say that one half of them 
have had their health so much impaired, as to be compelled for years almost 
to suspend all efficient study. Alas ! not a few of them have sunk into an 
early gi'ave." 

Professor Hitchcock, Amherst College. 

"How often did it occur, that soon after a young man, thus educated, entered 
upon his ministry, his nerves failed, his hands began to tremble, he could not 
read at night ; and then the preparation for the pulpit was all the study which 
he could accomplish in the week ; and then he must rest, and go abroad — and 
rest, in many instances, until he entered into the rest which remaineth for the 
people of God." 

Rt. Rev. Bishop Mcllvaine, Ohio. 

"Mr. Anderson observed, that in his intercourse with the members of our 
colleges and theological seminaries, for the purpose of obtaining men for the 
foreign service of the church, he had been distressed by the frequency with 
which those were unfitted for that service by impaired health, who otherwise 
were well qualified. He thought the evil great, and demanding more atten- 
tion than it had received. Many a good scholar is thus rendered compara- 
tively useless, by the time his education is completed. You need but con- 
verse with such, to be satisfied that they are not fitted for foreign enterprises, 
nor for encountering the rough storms of the world. They must be tenderly 
nursed at home ; and when they travel, must have the benefit of good roads, 
close carriages, and comfortable inns." 

Speech of Rev. Mr. Anderson, Secretary of A, B, C. F. M. 

"The prevailing systems of academic education are destructive of health, 
and fatal to the brightest prospects of usefulness. Among our young divines, 
and those who are now in preparation for the ministry, how few are there 
who do not labor under the unutterable tortures of dyspepsia, or the wasting 
ravages of pulmonary consumption, or of both!" 

Professor MitcheWs " Hints to Students." 

"It is for want of a regular and systematic course of exercise, that so many 
of our most promising youths lose their health by the time they are prepared 
to enter on the grand theatre of active and useful life, and either prematurely 
die or linger out a comparatively useless and miserable existence.^' 

President Partridge, Jefferson College, Mississippi. 

" There is scarcely a social circle among us which does not mourn over the 
untimely decline of some youthful member ; there is scarcely a society or 
parish that has not had to lament the blasting of their hopes by the wasting 
hand of consumption laid heavily and surely on the young minister of promise, 
piety, and talent." 

American Journal of Education. 

" Complaints in the head and heart, diseases of the eyes, and especially 
pulmonary, nervous, and dyspeptic diseases, are very common to students. 
These often retard their progress in their studies, prevent their usefulness, and 
not unfrequently hurry them to an untimely grave. In proof of this we need 
only look among our professional and literary men, and mark the ravages of 
jdisease and death. In ray short and limited acquaintance with men of studi- 



21 

ous habits, I have seen many a flower of fairest promise, in the gardens of 
literature, blighted in its prime, and scattered scentless and fruitless upon the 
ground." 

Rev. Dr. Fish's Inaugural Address at Wilbraham. 

"The studious man has in general been left to sedentary habits, till his 
physical frame, ruined, becomes the seat of numerous and distressing mala- 
dies, to which the laboring portion of the community are almost strangers." 

Annals of Education and Instruction. 

" The proportion of those who impair their health during a season of study, 
I believe to be fearfully great." 

President Chapin, Columbian College, Washington, D. C, 

*'That students in general suffer a sensible and visible decline in their 
health when intensely occupied, is matter of visible and painful notoriety ; and 
the entire overthrow of health and life is often the result of studious habits, 
precisely at the period when opportunity is presented for the individual to 
make his acquisitions available to himself and others. Melancholy exam- 
ples of premature death among men of brilliant talents and exalted virtue, at 
the very threshold of their usefulness, have become famUiar to all, as directly 
consequent upon close application and study. This question, then, is obviously 
of thrilling interest to every philanthi-opist." 

Dr. David M. Reese, New-YorJc. 

" How many of Plato's cripples have belonged to the army of the cross, 
encumbering its march, and bearing like so many dead weights upon its efforts ! 
* * * * How often has Zion been called to v^^eep bitter tears over their 
disappointed hopes! * * * This is an evil over which literature and 
religion have long mourned, and which has thinned the Christian army to an 
alarming degree." 

Dr. Reynolds of Boston, on Physical Culture. 

"How many young men of the highest promise, by intense application to 
study, and for the want of proper exercise, have left college with broken con- / 

stitutions ; and with all their intellectual treasures, have passed a miser- u 
able life, a burden to themselves, and useless to society ! How many have 
fallen victims to this mistaken regimen, either before or not long after the 
completion of their collegiate course ! How few, by timely change of habit, 
arrest or repair the effects of that debility contracted at college?" 

Report of the Trustees of Cumberland College. 

"I should say, that of those who deserve the character of close students, 
full one half, if not more, injure themselves by an injudicious neglect of exer- 
cise ; and that of this number, full one fourth, if not a third, lay a foundation for 
feebleness and disease, which go with them through life, and greatly diminish > 

both their usefulness and enjoyment. Indeed, of candidates for the ministry / 

who have been habitual students, I doubt whether one in six, or even one in V 

eight, brings to the public service of the sanctuary an unimpaired constitu- 
tion. This loudly calls for some effectual remedy. To see a candidate for 
the ministry pursuing a course directly calculated to reduce his strength, 
derange his nervous system, prostrate his animal spirits, and render him a 
poor hypochondriac, incapable of animated or forcible speaking, is indeed a 
melancholy spectacle, but one which we are very often compelled to witness." 

Rev. Dr. Miller, Princeton Theol. Sem. 



22 

"There are but few instances of close students going through an entire 
course of study, who do not impair their health." 

Professor Ripley, Newton Theol. Sent. 

"By many intelligent persons it is hardly known as a fact, that so large a 
proportion of students are invalids, or die prematurely by disease, or that the 
cause of this fact is to be found in excessive study." 

President Junkin, Lafayette College, Penn. 

« The mischief done by this perverse mode of education is inconceivable. 
It has been the grand source of bodily inactivity, voluptuous weakness, effemi- 
nacy, a multitude of diseases, and in short an immeasurable portion of our 
sufferings. What then shaU we say of a mode of education which forcibly 
impels us to disobey the laws of nature, by rejecting from its plan the improve- 
ment of our bodies with the habits of corporeal exertion, and leaving these 
important subjects to .blind chance." 

Professor Salzman, Germany. 

"The destroying angel is flying through the ranks of the rising ministry, 
and every year and every month the tidings come that another and another 
has fallen. The loss which in this manner has so often withered the joys of 
parents and instructors, and covered the church -with a cloud, is frequently, 
perhaps I may say usually aggravated by the fact, that young men of the 
strongest minds and of the biightest promise are the victims.* The Ameri- 
can Education Society has a tale of lamentation and woe to tell on this sub- 
ject. Not far from thirty young men under its patronage have smik into their 
graves before their preparatory course could be finished, and as many more 
have been permanently disabled, and laid aside from their labors, by the failure 
of health." 

Address of Rev. Dr. Cornelius. 

"It is a notorious fact, familiar to every attentive observer, that those stu- 
dents, with a very few exceptions, who are close apphcants, and excel as 
scholars, either lose their health entirely, during their elementary or profes- 
sional studies, or have it so much impaired as to be unfit for the duties of their 
profession, and to be liable continually to sink under the slightest shock or 
indisposition. These evils are most severely felt in the clerical profession." 

Professor Monteith, late of Hamilton College. 

"Half the literary men of our country have suffered, and are now suffering, 
from inattention to those intervals of corporeal exercise and mental recrea- 
tion, \vithout which, no human being devoted to intellectual pursuits, has any 
right to expect the privileges and immunities of health." 

American Journal of Education. 

"The annals of intemperance can scarcely farnish a more appalling picture 
of wasting disease, premature death, and broken constitutions, than the his- 
tory of education in this country exhibits. * * * 

"Had I time, sir, I could give names and dates, and other circumstances 
occurring within my own short experience, of hopes withered, usefulness 
destroyed, constitutions ruined, and hfe cut short, that would awaken aU the 
sympathies of this audience. It is a matter of fact, that few men of our pro- 

* Who can fill the places of Suinmerfield, Lamed, Griffin, Carlos Wilcox, Christ, 
mas, Sutherland, Douglass, Amos Pettingell, and James B. Taylor ? 



23 

fession are men of sound health, capable of 'enduring hardness as ffood sol- 
"diers of Jesus Christ.' " ^ 

Speech of Rev. Mr. Gale, Principal of the Oneida Institute. 

"The Christian church at the present day is losing a great amount of power 
by the feeble health of her ministers. To meet a clergyman, indeed, espe- 
cially of the younger class, is come to be almost synonymous with meeting 
an invalid. Alas ! multitudes, by neglecting in early life to alternate labor 
with study, and to form habits of abstemiousness in living, prepare their sys- 
tems for yielding to the sHghtest shock; and when once plunged into the 
mire, they are most commonly wading through it aU their days. Instances of 
this character have been so alarmingly multiplied in latter years ; bright hopes 
have been so often prostrated; vigorous and pious youth of sprightliness, 
genius, and promise, have so often been changed into complaining, imbecile' 
gloomy dyspeptics ; that a solicitous inquiry has gone forth among the guard- 
ians of Uterature and religion, as to the cause and remedy. And from almost 
every quarter a response is somided louder and louder m then: ears: it is the 
Tieglect of early physical education." 

Professor Hitchcock .on Physical Culture. 

"In looking over our catalogue for the last fourteen years of my connection 
with this college, I find that at least one fourth of those who were close stu- 
dents in their collegiate course have suffered in health, and are now either 
numbered with the dead, or in feeble health. The records of this coUege fur- 
nish sad testimony as to the consequences of neglected exercise. Many, and 
those too of our most promising alumni, have here laid the foundation of pro- 
tracted illness and death." 

Professor Newman, Bowdoin College. 

"All regard drunkenness as a perpetual suicide. It is only when self- 
destruction has been accomplished by the student and the professional man, 
by violating the laws of nature through indolence and inattention to health, 
and excess of study, that it has Utlierto been honored by a Christian com- 
munity as a commendable pursuit of knowledge. Shall this self-immolation 
of professional men be always encouraged and sanctified by public applause?" 
Rev. Dr. Beecher^s Inaugural Address at Lane Seminary. 

Are these competent witnesses? Is their testimony worthy of 
credit? Are these explicit statements mere blind guess work, or are 
they the records of undeniable fact ? Are they ghostly spectres con- 
jured up to scare children, or giant realities that may well alarm 
men? The character of the witnesses, their opportunities for obser- 
vation, the explicit and emphatic language in which they clothe their 
testimony, and the deep toned earnestness with which it is uttered, 
will be deemed sufficient vouchers by all whose convictions are pro- 
duced by evidence. 

In view of facts as they are, I ask, " Shall the sword devour for* 
ever?" Shall this havoc be entailed upon the next generation, and! 
accelerated onward, until the world turns pale before a destroyer 
which every where walketh in darkness, and wasteth at noonday? 
Shall we, by refusing to arrest the ruin while we can, not only give it 



24 

free passage down to our children's children, but blasphemously bid 
God-speed to the tragedy which is to drown them in their own blood? 

Perhaps while it is admitted that these evils exist, it is denied that 
they result from neglect of exercise. That other causes connected 
with the quantity and quality of food, high stimulants, unnatural pos- 
tures, a deficiency or excess of sleep, operate to bring about the 
result, is manifest ; and it is equally clear that a want of sufficient 
exercise in the open air is the 7nain cauee. The following testimony 
is explicit : 

"Every fact presented by the pathology of the diseases of literary men con- 
firms the opinion that the neglect of physical culture lies at the foundation." 

Dr. Reynolds of Boston on Physical Culture. 

"Inactivity is the great bane of literary men. To the student exercise may 
be considered the most certain safeguard against all those diseases which 
result from intellectual exhaustion. It is plain that in the present state of 
thmgs, men's minds are too much engaged, and their bodies too little ; and 
here lies the root of the bodily mischief so much complained of I am fuUy 
persuaded that deficient exercise and mental, anxiety are far the most com- 
mon and most powerflil sources of dyspepsy." 

Graham on Indigestion. 

"It is the dehauchery of inaction that has spread itself so extensively, and 
engendered so alarming an increase of dyspepsy and other chronic maladies." 

Professor Salzman. 

" The principal cause of dyspepsy and kindred diseases among students, 
may be defined to be the want exercise in the open air. Exercise, active and 
frequent exercise, is not only necessary, but that it be conducted in the open 
air, is indispensable. There is no substitute for this privation in any instance 
of the diseases originating from studious habits, and it should be frequent and 
regular in its repetition." 

Dr. David M. Reese, New-York. 

"The most operative and influential cause of dyspeptic derangements is. 
want of adequate muscular exertion. Other inferior sources there are of such 
gastric disorders, but the most prolific of all is deficient employment of the 
physical energies of the system." 

Dr. Harrison, Louisville, Ky. 

"A veiy cursory investigation of exercise will show that inactivity is not 
only a very powerful direct disease, but that by co-operating with the other 
causes of disease to which students are exposed, it has a more general and 
pernicious influence than any other, perhaps than all the rest." 

Dr. Finley, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

"Many medical men lay great stress upon attention to diet; but we are 
fully persuaded that regimen is of still greater moment, and experience proves 
that exercise is the most essential branch of the athletic regimen." 

American Editor of Dr. Kitchener. 



25 

If then the neglect of bodily exercise is the main cause of these 
evils, remove the cause, and the effect will cease. Shall yfe refuse 
to procure exemption from the inflictions of such a curse, when it can 
be purchased at so cheap a rate as this ? Most men admit the impor- 
tance of exercise forhealti', but few, comparatively, have an adequate 
conviction of its necessity. 

There are many commonly received truths, which require frequent 
statement and much explicit detail, in order that their importance may 
be appreciated. As this is one of them, the extracts which follow 
require neither preface nor apology. 

"Nothing in the world is a more certain and efficacious preservative of 
health than a sufficiency of bodily motion. It excels every medicine that can 
be recommended for the preservation of health and the prevention of dis- 
ease, and in this view may be justly called a panacea, as it not only removes 
the causes of disorders, but is an effectual means of strengthening the body, 
and keeping it in a proper tone." 

Hoffman, Physician to the King of Prussia. 

" Labor or exercise is indispensably necessary to preserve the body any time 
in due phght," 

Cheyne. 

"Exercise in the open air is essential to the well being of every person." 

Paris on Diet. 

" Nothing can supply the place of exercise in the open air. Without it, the 
body very soon inevitably grows languid ; the circulation is impeded ; the / 

general nervous energy impaired ; the digestive functions enervated and dis- "^ 

ordered; and the body becomes an easy prey to some chronic disorder." 

Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life. 

"The public at large are far from having attained to any correct or ade- 
quate knowledge of the uncommon power of exercise in preserving health, 
augmenting corporeal strength, improving the mental faculties, assisting in 
curing disease, and contributing to the prolongation of life." 

Dr. Kitcheners Invalid's Oracle. 

"Active exercise is essentially necessary to counteract the fatal tendencies, 

of close study." 

Professor MitchelVs "Hints to Students." 

"The effects of exercise, when not carried to the extent of producing undue 
fatigue, are, to promote the circulation of the fluids throughout the body ; to. 
render the digestion of food more easy and perfect; to ensure the nutrition of 
every part of the system, and to enable perspiration and the other eaaretions 
to take place with regularity." 

Journal of Health. 

"Men of letters, from neglecting to take exercise, are often the rnost 
unhealthy of human beings. Even temperance is no effectual remedy against 

4 



26 

the mischiefs of a sedentary life, which can only be counteracted by a prq>er 
quantity of exercise and air." 

Directions for Prolonging Life. 

" The power of daily, active exercise, in the open air, in curing indigestion, 
is v|!ry great, indeed such as would appear to the majority of persons almost 
incredibJe ; and therefore it cannot be too much insisted on as an indispensa- 
ble requisite to ensure perfect freedom from this complaint." 

Dr. Barrett, American Editor of Kitchener. 

"The studious and contemplative ought io make exercise a part of their 
religion." 

Cheyne. 

" Nothing but daily exercise in the open air can brace and strengthen the 
powers of the stomach, and prevent an endless train of diseases which result 
from a relaxed state of that organ." 

Dr. EwelVs Medical Companion. 

"A due proportion of exercise we find to be necessary to the perfect action 
of every function, both of body and mind. By the want of it, their vigor is 
impaired; the body becomes incapable of maintaining itself in health. The 
greater number of diseases which fall under our inspection originate from 
inactivity of the body." 

New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, article " Medicine." 

"That sprightly vigor of health which we enjoy in an active course of life, 
is owing wholly to new blood made every day from fresh food prepared and 
distributed by the joint action of all parts of the body. 

Cadogan. 

"Health depends upon perpetual secretion and absorption, and exercise only 
can produce this." 

Dr. Kitchener. 

" Exercise keeps off obstructions, which are the principal causes of disease, 
and ultimately of death." 

Institutes of Health. 

" Deficient exercise, or continued rest, weakens the circulation, relaxes 
the muscles, diminishes the vital heat, checks the perspiration, injures diges- 
tion, and sickens the whole frame." 

Journal of Health. 

"None of the important processes connected with the important function of 
digestion could be adequately performed, unless the body were stimulated for 
that purpose by labor and exertion." 

Invalid's Oracle. 

" The position is universally established, that exercise should be ranked 
among the most powerful agents which we can employ for the preservation 
of health. It strengthens the solid parts, and promotes the circulation of the 
fluids beyond any thing else within the compass of nature." 

Friend to Health. 

" Exercise is the most powerful remedy for strengthening the whole sya- 
tem, and we depend more on it than on any other means singly taken." 

Woodforde on Dyspepey, 



27 

« Regular exercise, of suitable degree and continuance, would exert a pow- 
erful influence on the student, in preventing those diseases which ordinarily 
assail the constitution, and shorten the life of our literary men." 

Professor Sewall, Medical Institution, Washington, D. C. 

" As I am a compound of soul and body, I consider myself as obliged to a 
double scheme of duties, and think I have not fulfilled the business of the day, 
when I do not employ the one in labor and exercise, as well as the other in 
study and contemplation." 

Addison. 

" Experience teaches the absolute necessity of exercise, and generally of 
much exercise, which is not likely to be obtained without system." 

President Griffin, Williams College. 

" My whole observation and experience, ever since I became capable of 
observing at all, have been most convincing in relation to the importance of 
systematic exercise for students. For the last twenty years, my attention has 
been closely drawn to it, and my opportunities of observing and deciding in 
reference to it, have bsen numerous and very impressive. It is true, some 
students stand in need of a greater amount of bodily exercise than others; 
but all need it, and need it indispensably. Not one student, I should say, in 
^ve hwidred, can, with safety to his health, pursue a systematic course of 
study, without the habitual use of a considerable amount of exercise in the open 
air. He may, for a time, feel pretty well without it, and imagine that it is 
not necessary for him ; but it is all a delusion. Nature will, in the end, assert 
her claims ; and he will be obliged to pay up, principal and interest, for all 
his old arrears of exercise ; and it will be well, if he should ever be able to 
quiet the claim. Many young men whom I earnestly and tenderly exhorted 
on this subject, at the commencement of their theological course, and who 
have in a great measure disregarded my exhortation, liave come to me after- 
wards in all the bitterness of repentance, mourning over the prostration of 
their health, and lamenting that they did not profit by my counsel. In short, 
my conviction of the importance and indispensable necessity of systematic 
exercise to all students, is every day becoming more deep and strong. We 
say to every student, without fear of mistake, " You must take exercise daily, 
or quit study, or be sick." 

Rev. Dr. Miller, Princeton Theol. Sent. 



The ruinous effects of the present system upon the body are only 
as the dust of the balance, when compared with the inroads made upon 
intellect, moral feeUng, the habits, and the character. I remark, 

II. The present system of education effeminates the 

MIND. 

* * * " the languid eye ; the cheek. 
Deserted of its bloom; the flaccid, shrunk. 
And withered muscle ; and the vapid soul," 

belong together. Poetry is sometimes fiction ; here it is not only 
fact, but philosophy. That state of the body produced by insufficient 
exercise, dims intellectual perception, clogs the suggestive principle, 



28 

chains down the imagination, and loads the mind with torpor. On 
the other hand, that state of the body which is the result of sufficient, 
regular exercise, quickens the principle of association, strengthens 
the memory, animates the fancy, concentrates all the powers of the 
mind, and gives impulse to their operations. An appeal to the experi- 
ence of every individual would seem quite sufficient to set this point 
at rest. But in matters of moment, explicit testimony is rarely out 
of place : 

"The advantages of exercise are not confined to the body. It refreshes 
the intellectual powers, and gives to them a spirit and sprightliness which can 
be derived from no other source." 

Disorders of Literary Men. 

"Deficiency of exercise mainly contributes to that languor of mind and 
body, timidity, &c., which distinguish the sedentary citizen from the labo- 
rious peasant." 

Dr. James Johnson, London, 

"A disordered stomach extinguishes the flame of genius." Kotzebue. 

"The difference, indeed, between the movements of the mind with and with- 
out exercise, is as great as between the movements of a clock clogged and 
groaning with friction and dirt, and one newly oiled and cleaned, with every 
pivot, wheel, and pin, in place." 

Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted. 

"A wen formed and healthy condition of the material organs is as essential 
to correct and powerful mental action, as a sound state of the eye and ear for 
seeing and hearing." 

Dr. Brigham's ^^Influence of Menial Cultivation on Health." 

« A feeble body enfeebles tie mind." Rousseau. 

"The cultivation of the mind suffers, unless physical improvement accom- 
panies it step by step. If we exercise the body, it will become strong and 
active. In this state it will invigorate the mind ; it wiU render it manly, 
energetic, indefatigable, firm, and courageous." 

Professor Salzman, Germany. 

« The soundness of the understanding depends much on the bodily powers." 

Disorders of Literary Men. 

"The mind partakes of the languor of the body." 

New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Article " Medicine." 

" Who does not know that the mind participates in the condition of the body ; 
that it is cheerful when the body is strong and health)'-, and depressed When 
the body is languid?" 

Professor Voelker, Germany. 

"Long bodily inaction will deprive the mental faculties of their purity and 
energy. ***** Regular exercise will invigorate the understand- 
ing, and encourage pure and elevated sentiment." 

Dr. Harris' Oration before the Philadelphia Medical Society. 



29 

" We do not need a physician to tell us that dullness and inefficiency of 
saind are the sure results of the neglect of exercise, or that brUliancy and 
force of thought are the natural fruits of activity." 

American Journal of Education. 

« It is wonderful how much the mind is enlivened hy the motion and exer- 
cise of the body." 

Pliny, Epistles, 1. 6. 

"Take care of the health of the body ; for without it, the mind can accom- 
plish nothing." 

Cicero. 

" Would you cultivate the understanding of your pupil ? Cultivate the pow- 
ers it is to govern. Exercise his body continually ; render it healthy and 
robust, in order to make him intelligent; let him toil ; let him act ; let Mm be 
ever in motion." 

Rousseau, 

" A well formed and exercised body is precisely what insures the proper 
performance of the mental functions." 

Salzman. 

*' Whatever enfeebles the body, debilitates the mind." John Howard. 

"The condition of the body has a great effect upon that of the mind ; and 
it is certain that an author's productions will vary very much at diiferent 
times, if he neglects to attend to the rules now laid down. Do not neglect to 
take as much exercise as possible during this period, [when engaged in com- 
position.J Authors act very unwisel}'', to neglect this branch of regimen, 
because if the circulation of the blood, and other bodily functions, are preserved 
in a healthy state by exercise, (and they cannot be so preserved without it) the 
mind must be proportionately invigorated, and the composition produced will 
be more uniformly excellent than it otherwise would be." 

Kitchener, 

"The effects of exercise upon the faculties of the mind are also of much 
importance. It keeps the understanding clear, the imagination untroubled, 
and the spirits in a state fit for the proper and most vigorous exertion of our 
intellectual powers. The necessary consequences are, that the attention 
becomes more ready, the perceptions more acute, and all the mental faculties 
not only brighter and more elevated, but preserved longer in old age. The 
mind also becomes inore courageous ; corporeal sufferings are borne with 
patience ; a command of temper, and a presence of mind, are also acquired, 
and preserved undisturbed amidst pain and danger." 

Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life. 

"Were the exercise of the body attended to in a corresponding degree with 
that of the mind, men of great learning would be more healthy and vigorous, 
of more general talents, of ampler practical knowledge, more happy in their 
domestic lives, more enterprising, and more attached to their duties as men. 
In fine, it may with propriety be said, that the highest refinement of the mind, 
without improvement of the body, can never present any thing more than half 
a human being. ********** 

At every stage of life, the influence of physical education is experienced in 
an increased amount of health and cheerfuhiess, a better developed and more 
synajaaetrical form of body, and an increase of capacity for mental exertion. 



30 

" That genius is comparatively lost to the world, which is unsustained by a 
sound body. It perishes in its own fire." 

Journal of Health. 

"Exercise, while it increases circulation, insensible perspiration, and mus- 
cular development and vigor, proportionally increases respiration, and thus the 
blood is more fully and completely purified and renovated in the Imigs, and 
becomes po^ssssed of more of that vital spirit which stimulates and exhila- 
rates wherever it flows, and diffuses mental and moral, as well as animal and 
organic vigor, and cheerfulness, aud elasticity, and buoyancy, throughout the 
whole man. Hence a due proportion of exercise is indispensably necessary, 
in order to the greatest intellectual strength and activity, and to that mental bold- 
ness, and freedom, and acumen, and prehension, and heroic daring, which 
marked the movements of the great minds of the earlier ages of the world. 
Indeed, it was to the condition of their bodies, resulting from their peculiar 
regimen, more than to any thing else, that the giant intellects of antiquity 
owed their peculiar superiority over modern minds." 

Sylvester Graham, Lecturer on Health and Longevity. 

"A well regulated systerja of exercise would augment and strengthen all the 
powers of the intellect; woald render it active, clear, and discriminating, and 
greatly increase the capacity of acquiring knowledge, and at the same time 
impart a spirit of enterprise, energy, and decision of character, indispensable 
to lofty designs, or great achievements. " 

Professor Sewall, Medical College, Wahington, D. C. 

" Whatever has a tendency to improve and maintain the general health of 
the system, cannot fail to act beneficially upon the mind. After an interval 
of relaxation spent in exercise, the student returns to his task not only with 
renewed pleasure, but with increased vigor and clearness of intellect for its 
accomplishment. The organs of the mind, and those of the bodily functions 
generally, are too intimately connected in the human organization, not to be 
influenced reciprocally by the condition of each. When the stomach, the 
heart, the lungs, or the skin, perforin imperfectly their respective functions, 
the functions of the brain invariably suffer more or less disturbance, and the 
faculties of the mind are diminished in acuteness and in energy. Is the weak, 
languid, often suffering valetudinarian, or the individual in perfect health, sup- 
posing them to be equal in regard to the natural powers and the cultivation of 
their minds, best adapted for the prosecution of literary and scientific labors? 
Common experience shows what we should conclude a priori, that it is the 
latter. Who has not felt the influence of even a trifling and temporary illness, 
or a slight disturbance of the stomach from some error in diet, in a diminished 
inclination as well as aptitude for intellectual exertion] The biography of 
the learned proves incontestibly that health and activity of body promote in 
no slight degree the health and activity of the mind. It has been said, we are 
aware, that the independence of mind on matter is evinced by the intellectual 
labors which have been performed, in certain cases, under extreme bodily suf- 
fering, debility, or disease. We apprehend, however, that such examples are 
extremely rare. We find, on the other hand, that very many of the names 
most distinguished in the republic of science and of letters have belonged to 
men noted for their bodily health and vigor. They also who have been cele- 
brated for the powers of their intellect, and the extent and diversity of their 
mental acquirements, have very generally been distinguished equally for their 
exploits under circumstances demanding the utmost strength of body and 
energy of frame. We need hardly refer to those illustrious individuals, who, 
At different periods of the world, and in different countries, by the vigor, strength, 



31 

and acuteness of their intellects, were enabled to advance far before the age 
in which they were born, and by their personal exertions in the field of battle, 
or in equally laborious enterprises, produced a complete change in the charac- 
ter and condition of nations, or enlarged immeasurably the boundaries of 
human knowledge. These examples show at least that no fear need be enter- 
tained of injury to the mind resulting from any attempts to improve and hus- 
band the health and strength of the constitution." 

Dr. D. Francis Condie, Philadelphia. 

" A judicious combination of physical and mental labor in our literary insti- 
tutions would tend to strengthen and improve the intellect of the students, as 
well as to preserve their bodily health." 

Chancellor Walworth, Albany, N. Y. 

"No man can have either high intellectual action, or definite control over 
his mental faculties, without regular physical exercise. The want of it pro- 
duces also a feebleness of wiU which is as fatal to moral attainment as it is to 
intellectual progress." 

President Wayland, Brown University. 

" Within a few years past, particularly, I have been so situated that I could 
not but see the beneficial effects of a sufficient amount of exercise, and the 
effects also of a deficiency. At the beginning of almost every collegiate term, 
invigorated by active efforts during vacation, the students resume their stu- 
dies with great success, and little complaint is heard about headaches, vertigo, 
debility, and other ailments resulting from neglect of proper exercise. But 
not many weeks pass away, before the sick list begins to fill up ; the physi- 
cian's pills and emetics come into requisition ; and ere long his certificate is 
presented, that the health of the student is such as to render it expedient that 
he should be absent for some time from college. Others, similarly affected, 
drag along to the close of the term, but are reported by their instructors in 
classics and mathematics as 25 per cent, lower on the merit roll than before. 
I have certainly known one third of a class, during some terms unfavorable 
for exercise, brought into this wretched state ; nor could you convince one of 
them that a greater amount of exercise, with more temperance in diet, would 
prevent such a result." 

Professor Hitchcock, Amherst College. 

That mental activity is promoted by bodily motion, is a matter of 
universal consciousness. Who has not felt the current of thought 
becoming motionless, and its fountain beginning to stagnate, after 
thinking closely for hours, and preserving the same posture of bodyj,' 
And who upon caUing his muscles into active play, has not felt new 
fountains break out within him, and fresh thought pour over the soul 
its living waters 1 

The active habits of Demosthenes, Pericles, Sophocles, Xenophon, 
Caesar, and many other eminent ancients, will at once occur to the 
general reader. Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, delivered their lectures 
while walking. Cicero dictated many of his works in the same way. 
Among the moderns, John Locke, John Wesley, Thomas Scott, Bona- 
parte, Rousseau, and Gibbon, happily illustrate the principle. One of 



33 '^^M 

the biographers of Burns tells us, that his happiest efforts were made 
when he was in rapid motion. At such times he seemed instinct with 
the soul of poetry. • The late Mr. Pinckney, of Baltimore, used to 
arrange his arguments while pacing his room. This is the well 
known custom of many of the most eminent men now living. The 
late Dr. Mitchill, of New-York, was once asked how he acquired 
knowledge with such facility. He replied, "I keep stij^ring my 
stumps, sir." He then remarked, that when studying at a European 
university, he used to procure, if possible, a quarto or folio edition of 
the various works used for text books, and study while walking his 
room, and carrying his book before him. The habits of the Peripa- 
tetics in this respect were strictly philosophical. 

All the powers of the mind are refreshed and renovated by bodily 
exercise ; but perhaps none of them more than the power of sugges- 
tion or association — that power which strikes out analogies, and calls 
up illustrations ; that which suggested to Galileo the pendulum prin- 
ciple, from the vibratory motion of a chandelier before him; that 
which conducted Newton from the fall of an apple to the wheeHng of 
a planet, and unveiled that omnipresent law, which binds alike the 
mote and the sun. 

The inventive power, which is a modification of the same principle, 
is greatly invigorated by that healthful energy of the circulation, which 
is produced by bodily exercise. 

It is a well known fact, that a large proportion of the most impor- 
tant inventions, and the most valuable discoveries in the application of 
science to practical purposes, have originated with men remarkable 
for Tialits of bodily activity. In our own country, Franklin, Ritten- 
house, Count Rumford, Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, 
Fulton, and Perkins, stand preeminent in this department. The 
active habits and physical energy of the first four and the last are 
known as far as their names. 

Fulton, though inferior to the others in strength of constitution, was 
in his habits at an equal remove from bodily inactivity. The general 
fact that has been stated, is not peculiar to this country. Two or 
three years since, the editor of an English periodical made the same 
remark with reference to the inventions and discoveries in Great 
Britain and on the continent. 

It is not contended that bodily exercise creates mind; but it is 
asserted that exercise is indispensable to summon out the tttmost pos- 
sibility of mental effort. The most powerful extemporaneous speak- 



83 

ers in every age of the world have with few exceptions been men of 
active bodily habits. From Demosthenes and Paul, to Peter the 
Hermit, and Bernard ; from John Knox * and Richard Baxter, to Wes- 
ley, Whitefield, and Patrick Henry, the record of history bears wit- 
ness to the general fact. 

The same may be said of those in our own age and country, who 
can rise upon the heaving exigencies of the moment, and at whose 
bidding instant creations and mighty embodyings of thought and argu- 
ment, sublime conceptions, glowing analogies, and living imagery, 
burst as by miracle from the deep of mind in overshadowing forms of 
majesty and power. 

The general principle which has been stated and illustrated, is 
forcibly presented in the following extracts from letters recently 
received : 

"My own experience and observation have convinced me, that even moderate, 
but stated exercise, invigorates the memory, strengthens the power of thought, 
quickens the perceptive faculty, animates the fancy, purifies the taste, and 
imparts fresh activity to the principle of association; in a word, such a habit 
creates a greater capacity for mental labor, a more enduring energy, a loftier 
enthusiasm, a more perfect harmony in the whole system of intellectual pow- 
ers. The student who neglects such an auxiliary to his mental discipline and 
progress, is eminently unwise, if we consider only himself; but ungrateful and 
criminal too, if we regard his obligations to God, his fellow men, his country, 
and kmdred." 

Thos. S. Grimhe, Esq. Charleston, S. C. 

" I incline to the opinion that the activity of the mind sympathizes with 
that of the body, and that thought in all its modifications is most active when 
the body is in motion. Lord Sheffield tells us, that Mr. Gibbon's usual habit 
of composition was by pacing across his room ; and that referring to one of the 
finest passages in his history, he told him, with a smile, that it had cost him a 
good many turns." 

Hon. John Quincy Adams, Mass. 

" He that knows any thing as he should do, of the discipline of mind, knows 
that when fitted for action, it will do more in an hour, than it will for days 
when not fitted. The exhilaration of exercise is essential to its most successful 
operation." 

Professor Stuart, Andover Theol. Sent. 

" A frequent walk around the room, especially when arranging thought, I 
have found manifestly useful to me. I arrange the trains of thought which I 
employ in public speaking generally while walking back and forth in my 
chamber." 

Rev. B. Green, Professor of Sac. Lit. Western Reserve College. 

" I have often been taught by experience that if I set out and walk rapidly, 

* It is said of the Scotch reformer, that he often walked forty miles a day, with 
his pack upon his back, besides preaching two sermons." 

5 



34 

until my whole system is in a glow, I can sit down and study more in two 
hours, than without it I could have done in six, or even in a whole day." 

Professor Cooke, Med. Depart. Transylvania University. 

" In my own case, while at study in my collegiate course, when labor was 
unfashionable, my mind could be brought to act intensely on a subject only 
after vigorous exercise. I was then in the daily use of such exercise, for the 
object above specified." 

Dr. Slack, late President of the Western University. 

III. The present system of education is perilous to morals. 

The Committee are respectfully referred to the following testi- 
mony : 

"Youth must and wDl have employment of some kind. They cannot study 
always. In our colleges they are usually suffered to devise their own ways 
and means of amusement. They are expected indeed, perhaps exhorted, to 
take exercise, and they are allowed abundance of time for the purpose. StiU 
the whole concern is left to their own discretion. The time they have ; and 
the question is, how do they spend if? Often in mere idle lounging, talking, 
4" smoking, and sleeping; often in sedentary games, which, whether in them- 

selves lawful or imlawful, are always injurious to the student, because he 
requires recreation of a different kind ; but too frequently in low, degrading 
dissipation, in drinking and gaming, to the utter neglect of every duty, and to 
the utter abandonment and sacrifice of every principle of honor and virtue. I 
will not finish the melancholy picture which I had begun to sketch, not indeed 
from fancy or from books, but from facts which I have often witnessed, and 
which have sometimes led me almost to question the paramount utility of such 
institutions to the community. Still, with all their faults, I remain their 
decided advocate. But may they not be improved; or may not others be 
organized upon wiser and safer principles V 

President Lindsley, Nashville University. 

"Could the veil be lifted from some of our higher seminaries, and all the 
sources of youthful corruption exposed, the better part of the community would 
demand an immediate reform, or withhold their patronage." 

The late Rev. Dr. Rice. 

" It is a fact that ought not to be disguised, that the morals of youth fre- 
quently become corrupted in our academies and colleges." 

Rev. Mr. Frost's Oration before the Alumni of Middlebury College. 

" This [speaking of the employment of a certain portion of each day in 

bodily exercise,] is precisely the resource which is wanted in numberless insti- 

\ tutions, to occupy and fill up those vacant and dangerous hom-s which are 

A robbing so many of our young men of their physical and moral soundness. 

For the truth of this statement we appeal to the history and present state of 

every college in our country." 

American Journal of Education. 

"Idleness is the parent of every vice." Dr. Rush. 

"An idle man is the devil's workshop." English Proverb. 



35 

This is not the only way in which the moral character is put in 
jeopardy, and the moral sensibilities are blunted by the present system. 
That state of the hody occasioned hy neglect of exercise corrodes ike 
temper, and deadens moral feeling. Dr. Reynolds, of Boston, in his 
address on physical culture, describing the moral effect of that state 
of the system produced by neglect of exercise, says : 

"Pusillanimity usurps the place of that moral courage in a man which 
could meet every trial with firmness; * * * the spirits are dejected; 
* * * the voice of friendship falls powerless upon the ear; and the love 
of God kindles but a momentary feeling in the palsied soul." 

Address before the Mechanical Association in Andover Theol. Sem. 

<' Hence arise depression of spirits, irritability of temper, pain, confusion in 
the head, &.c." 

Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life. 

" It is certain, that kind of morbid affection of the corporeal powers which 
is induced by the neglect of exercise, has a tendency to enfeeble and becloud 
the mind ; to destroy its clearness and elasticity ; to injure the temper ; to 
render all the feelings miserable and morbid ; to indispose the individual for 
almost any duty, and thus very often unfit for any.'^ 

Rev, Dr. Miller, Princeton Theol. Sem. 

" Those complaints which are induced by neglect of physical cidture are 
almost as destructive in their influence upon the religious character, as upon 
the physical and intellectual. Dietetic improprieties and neglect of exercise 
are sure to produce irresolution, fickleness, irritability of temper, despond- 
ency, and melancholy. These feelings and passions are obviously most hos- 
tile to cheerful, healthful piety." 

Hitchcock on Physical Culture. 

"The body requires action: if this be not allowed, it will obtain it in 
silence ; it will act upon the passions ; and above all, the fiery temperament 
of youth will inflame the imagination." 

Professor Salzman, Germany. 

" When we reflect on the dreadful maladies, corporeal, moral, and intel- 
lectual, that result from a debilitated condition of the digestive organs and the 
circulatory system, that view cannot fad to induce us to use such means as 
may prevent these evils. Should it seem strange to some, that we connect 
morals and the exercise ef intellect with the state of digestion and circulation, 
we need only refer them to the mental phenomena exhibited by an epicure or 
a drunkard, or even the more innocent, though not much less distressing con- 
dition-of our modern dyspeptics. lu these classes of degraded and suffering 
humanity will be found facts that would fill volumes, all proving incontestibly 
the overwhelming influence exercised hy the physiological functions upon the 
intellectual and moral state of man." 

American Journal of Education. 

Now the sentiment of Homer, that " the day which makes a man a slave, 
takes away half his worth," applies in all its force to the mmister of Christ, 
who has become the slave of dyspepsy. If able still to retain his place, his 
duties are but imperfectly performed. The grasshopper becomes a burden ; 



36 

and in musing so much upon his own troubles, he forgets those of his people ; 
in resisting the progress of sin, he is timid ; in special efforts, he is deficient ; 
in parochial duties, extremely remiss ; in his temper, he is apt to be unreason- 
ably jealous, desponding, and capricious. In short, while sin and error are 
strong and flourishing around him, he is disheartened and inefficient ; and all 
because he has as much as he can do to manage a broken constitution." 

Hitchcock on Physical Culture. 

" If we put under the penalty of our censure one whose bosom is not effect- 
ually warmed with the spirit of benevolence, we ought to be consistent with 
ourselves, and to frown upon such as have allowed a good temper to be spoiled, 
or who have failed to cultivate all those amiable endowments, which are the 
fruits of health, and cheerfulness, and active efforts to do good to men. What 
should we think of one who should turn a wild beast loose into the streets, to 
worry and devour the innocent and defenceless? And yet they who educate 
the young, have no more right to let loose upon society men whose indolence 
and insolence only fit them to annoy the peace and destroy the pleasures of 
those with whom their standing as scholars may chance to couple them in life. 
A hypochondriac person is a perpetual scourge ; and the punishment which 
he himself suffers, for his early neglect of exercise, falls where he suffers 
most keenly. It haunts him oftenest in his domestic relations. Like the 
plague in Egypt, it turns his cup into blood, and crowds his retirement with 
frogs. There is no peace for those who violate the laws of nature." 

President Humphreys, St. John's College, Md. 

A sufficient amount of daily exercise would be a preventive of these 
moral evils in three respects : 

1. The student would be kept busy. In the present system, there 
are three or four hours in all our institutions, during which the student 
is set free from all requisitions. He has nothing to do. Then, if 
universal experience proves any thing, he stands upon slippery places. 
It was when the unclean spii'it had found the house empty, that he 
introduced seven other spirits fouler than himself. Let any man visit 
our literary institutions, and take an inventory of facts upon this sub- 
ject, and he will be convinced that hours of idleness are a gift to the 
student originating in very questionable benevolence. In fine, modern 
education, by throwing into the hands of youth a number of entirely 
vacant hours each day, holds out a premium to insubordination, and 
practically legalizes those innumerable devices of mischief, indecency, 
and outrage, which abound in our literary institutions. Instead of 
surrounding the forming character with bulwarks of defence, it opens 
a thousand avenues of access, and surrenders the individual to indis- 
criminate assault. Yea, more ; it furnishes temptation with a pass- 
port to its victim, smooths the way for it, beckons it onward, and by 
refusing to make those requisitions which would keep it at bay, 
becomes its endorser, appears as its apologist and its advocate, and 
pleads for justification of the ruin it produces. Whereas, if this defect 



37 

in the existing order of things should give place to a regulation which 
would fill up with suitable exercise those hours of idleness so perilous 
to the student, he would be kept "out of harm's way." 

2. Sufficient exercise would be a preventive of moral evils by sup. 
plying that demand for vivid sensatimi so characteristic of youth, whose 
clamors for indulgence drive multitudes to licentious indulgence, or 
to ardent spirits, tobacco, and other unnatural stimulants. It would 
preserve the equihbrium of the system, moderate the inordinate 
demands of animal excitability, and quell the insurrection of appetite. 

3. Sufficient exercise would operate as a preventive of moral evils 
by removing those causes of irritability, jealousy, fickleness, and 
depression ef spirits, which are found in an unhealthful state of the 
system. In corroboration of these views, permit me to introduce the 
following testimony : 

" The most effectual security against external and internal causes of corrup- / 

tion IS constant occupaiion; and without this, no system of discipline can be / 

efficient. * * * And it is especially important, while the character is yet 
unformed, and the appetites and passions yet unaccustomed to submission and 
self denial." 

Annals of Education. 

"Industry is the great moralizer of man. The great art of education, there- 
fore, consists m knowing how to occupy every moment in well directed and use- 
ful activity of the youthful powers." 

Fellenberg. 

"The declaration is as trite as it is true, that exercise promotes virtue, and 
svbdues the storms of passion." 

Dr. Harris, of Philadelphia, on Physical Culture. 

"Labor of all kinds favors and facilitates the practice of virtue." 

Dr. Rush. 

"Make men work, and you will make them honest." John Howard. 

"Physical and moral health are as nearly related as the body and soul." 

Huf eland's '^ Art of Living." 

"Physical decline and moral depravity are intimately connected; and those 
laws which are requisite for the promotion of health, serve also to preserve 
and improve the morals." 

Annals of Physic, 

"A system of manual labor, while it promoted health, would be attended 
with many other advantages. It would exclude in a great measure those plans 
of mischief which are projected and executed in the hours of relaxation from 
study." 

Rev. Mr. Frosfs Oration before the Alumni of Middlebury College. 

" Every physiological fact which has a bearing upon the subject, teaches 
the value of a healthy action of the bodily organs, in promoting the vigorous 



38 

and effective operation of the mind. So far from deadening the susceptibility 
to emotion, the tendency is to quicken that susceptibility." 

Dr. Mussey, Professor, Medical Department, Dartmouth College. 

"Exercise, when properly regnlated and directed, tends to invigorate the 
intellectual faculties, as well as to elevate and furify the heart. It vanquishes 
that sickly sensibility, which frequently renders literary men so peevish and 
fretful." 

Professor Staughton, Ohio Medical College. 

"That system, which should provide complete employment, of a proper kind, 
for all the time of every individual, would, in my opinion, be the best system ; 
and might, perhaps, he fairly denominated a perfect system. And every approx- 
imation to it will, to the same extent, be an approach to perfection in this all 
important concern. Keep youth busy, and you keep them out of harm's way. 
You render them contented, virtuous, and happy." 

President Lindsley, Nashville University. 

"Physical labor will give that tone and harmony to the system which is 
necessary to resist most effectually the seductions of appetite, to produce the habit 
of self government and force of resolution." 

Annals of Education. 

"I believe exercise to be indispensable to bodily health, and that all the / 
operations of the mind are invigorated by health. I believe it equally pro- h 
motive oi the improvement of moml feeling. All the benevolent impulses of'' 
the heart are quickened." 

Hon. John Quincy Adams, Mass. 

The following extract from a Report of the Prison Discipline 
Society exhibits that practical good sense for which all the Reports of 
that Society are so highly distinguished : 

"It is the testimony of the officers, that they can prevent evil more easily 
among one hundred men who are busily employed, than betvi-'een one tenth 
part of that number who have nothing to do. This general remark is applicable 
to colleges, academies, and schools, and is one of ike great reasons of the frofii- 
gacy that is found in them, and shows the need of reform in them as much as simi- 
lar evils show the need of reform in the old penitentiaries. This subject would be 
less important, if fewer parents v/ere called annually to mourn over their child- 
ren's loss of character at public schools, and this, for one among other rea- 
sons, that they are not furnished with places, materials, and hours of labor. 
We hail, therefore, as harbingers of a better day, all those institutions, of what- 
ever name, in which it is illustrated, by actual experiment, how conducive pro- 
ductive labor is to virtue. To some extent, this is already done. And we know ' 
not why bodily exercise, in the form of productive labor should not be as condu- 
cive to virtue in academies and colleges, as in prisons and houses of refuge." 

Fourth Report P. D. S. 

" Our young men are exercised partly for the purpose of rendering them 
valiant warriors ; but then they are likewise so much tlie better citizens in 
time of peace. Idleness does not lead them into scandalous debauchery." '. 

Solon in Lucian. 



39 

"Persons who are compelled to use muscular labor, never complain of undue 
excitation of the nerves. The distress of the mind, the moody melancholy- 
connected with this temperament, is the exclusive possession of the idle, the 
devotee of pleasure, and the sedentary student. Individuals so affected can be 
effectually relieved hy muscular exertion alone. The precepts of philosophy, 
the comforts of reUgion, nay, the whole battery of the materia medica, will in 
such cases prove entirely powerless. It is by increasing exterior action, that 
we can permanently relieve the internal commotion." 

Dr. Harris, of Philadelphia, on Physical Culture. 

IV. The psesent system of education produces an indis- 
position TO EFFORT, AND DESTROYS HABITS OF ACTIVITY AND INDUS- 



How can it be otherwise, v/hen for eight or nine years the student 
is unused to effort, a stranger to/exposure, cooped up in a cloister, 
his fluids stagnating, his muscles relaxing, his nerves unbraced, and 
his only exercise the working of Ms brain, and all this at that forming 
period, when his character takes its shape for life. 

But surely when facts abound every where, theory may be dis- 
pensed with. If any one doubts the tendency of this present system, 
he is referred to a cloud of living witnesses. Let him traverse the 
country as a student of facts, and he will not ply his vocation long, 
before being convinced of what all the world knows already : he 
will find that those merchants, lawyers, physicians, and clergymen, 
who are least distinguished for business habits, enterprise, and active 
energy, are those who have "gone through a regular course of study 
without regular, vigorous exercise; and he will find that those mer- 
chants and professional men who are most eminent for promptness, 
activity, efficiency, and usefulness, have either not gone through a 
thorough course of study at ail, or if they have, their habits of vigor- 
ous exercise have not been laid aside during their education. True, 
there are exceptions, but they are only exceptions. This fact may 
not be obvious to mere Uterary men, who pass their lives mainly in 
seclusion. But with business men it has become a proverb. No 
remark is more common among such men every where than that the 
present system of education unfits men for the practical business of life. 
They see in a majority of those who graduate from our colleges a 
listless inactivity, a reluctance to locomotion, an aversion /to all vigor- 
ous, protracted effort, a timid shrinking from high attempt ; and if 
they were to sketch a full length portrait of one of them, he would 
probably be represented with his feet elevated upon the mantle-piece 
as high as his head, body bent much hke a half-moon or a horse- 



40 

shoe, lolling, stretching, yawning, smoking, snoring; or if he were 
represented in motion, it would be with a lounging air, arms danghng, 
and a loose-jointed gait, 

" Which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along." 

In every literary institution there are a number of hours daily, in 
which nothing is required of the student. These will generally be 
occupied in listless reverie, or in taking lessons in the science of time- 
killing, or in devising and executing schemes of mischief and low tricks, 
or in procuring vivid sensation by making experiments upon appetite 
and passion. To practice licentiousness, to make secret libations to 
Bacchus, to puff tobacco smoke, to play at games of chance, to hatch 
mischief, to mope from room to room, to shuffle slipshod through the 
halls, to slouch about; and gaze on vacuity, to drum with the fingers, 
to whistle, to doze, and nod, will generally be standard employments 
in institutions where the houfs^of leisure are not spent in regular exer- 
cise. Is it any marvel that the present system should be unfavorable 
to the formation of habits of industry and activity, when the stu- 
dent becomes so unused to vigorous effort as to regard it with aver- 
sion, and when there are three or four hours every day in which he 
has nothing to do ?* Suppose these three or four hours were filled up 
with appropriate exercise, and thus employment afforded for all the 
time of the individual, would he not, as a matter of course, form habits 
of industry? Let a student go through an entire course of study on 
this plan, and iy there is any truth in the maxim that " habit is second 
nature," depend upon it, that man will not slug his life away like a 
gorged anaconda, and crawl at last into a lounger's grave. 

V. The present systejvi of education is so expensive, that 

ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS ARE ANTI-REPUBIilCAN. 

At many of our colleges the annual expense, exclusive of books 
and clothing, is not far from two hundred dollars ; at others, one hun- 
dred and fifty; and at the cheapest, about one hundred dollars. Who 
then can educate their sons at college ? Not more than one family in 
twenty. Thus nineteen twentieths of our population are shut out 
from the advantages of education in the higher branches ; and as 
knowledge is power, the sons of the rich, by enjoying advantages for 

* This plan [the manual labor] will obviate the objection which many worthy- 
people make to sending their sons to classical schools, namely, that they are ren~ 
dered idle, and ever afterward averse to labor. Rev. Dr. Alexander, Princeton. 



41 

the acquisition of this power vastly superior to others, may secure to"' 
themselves a monopoly of those honors and emoluments which are con- 
ferred upon the well educated. In this way society is divided into castes, i 
The laboring classes become hewers of wood and drawers of water \ 
for the educated. The two parties stand wide asunder, no bond of / 
companionship uniting them, no mutual sympathies incorporating j 
them into one mass, no equality of privileges striking a common level { 
for both. The chasm between them, even in this republican govern- 
ment, already yawns deep and broad ; and if it be not speedily bridged, 
by bringing education within the reach of the poor, it will widen into 
an impassable gulf, and our free institutions, our national character, 
our bright visions of the future, our glory and our joy, will go down 
into itjX The general and state governments have done much in order 
to bring education within the reach of the great mass of the people. 
Millions have been expended in the erection of buildings, the establish- 
ment of professorships, and in the purchase of libraries and apparatus. 
And what is the result ? Why the wealthy can educate their sons a 
little cheaper than before. But education is still so expensive, that 
the community generally receive no benejit from such appropriations. 
Thus, our legislatures have in effect aided those who needed no 
assistance, and tantalized the needy with a show of aid so far removed, 
that it can never avail them. There is no benevolence in pointing a 
starving man to a loaf suspended in the air, unless you give him wings 
to fly to it. 

If a portion of the funds thus appropriated had been expended in 
furnishing the students of our institutions with the means o^ profitable 
employment during those hours each day which are not devoted to 
study, such appropriations would have befitted the character of a 
republican people, and our higher institutions ; instead of meting out 
their blessings, as they now do, only to a favored few, would pour 
them equally upon all, the sun of science would not rise merely to 
illuminate the palace, but to gladden the hovel. 

The present system is anti-repubUcan in its practical tendencies in 
another respect : 

It makes labor disreputable. The human mind is so constituted, 
that it must trace relations. It, would be a mental anomaly, if an 
impression made upon it remained, unconnected with any other object. 
Thotights and feeUngs are intertwined in clusters, and done up in 
bundles. Objects connected by juxta-position of time or place, and 
similarity of nature or uses, are recalled together. When one is 



42 

suggested, the other appears. Apply this simple principle to the 
case before us. Look at our institutions of learning. There, culti- 
vated intellect, refined taste, and extensive attainments, are connected 
with habits of bodily inactivity ; and this connection sanctions and 
sanctifies these habits. The learned are inactive ; the unlearned 
labor. The former stand aloof from all the employments of common 
life ; the latter are in the midst of them. Hence learning comes to 
be associated as a matter of course with inactivity, puts honor upon 
it, and buoys it upward ; while ignorance becomes associated with 
labor, cleaves fast to it, sits upon it as an incubus, and crushes it into 
the dust. If the officers and students of all our colleges and semina- 
ries should spend their hours of relaxation in agricultural or mecha- 
nical employments, would it not go far in redeeming labor from 
. disgrace ? 

I design to notice many other particulars in which the present sys- 
tem of education is injurious in its influence upon the individual, and 
upon the community ; but the discussion of these points will be reserved 
to another part of this communication, where the manual labor system 
will come under consideration, and its influence upon character will 
be contrasted with the effects produced by the present system. 

If the facts, reasonings, and testimony already presented, have any 
force, they carry us to the following results : First, bodily exercise 
is indispensable to man, demanded alike by the necessities of his cor- 
poreal, intellectual, and moral nature, his individual happiness, and 
social usefulness ; and Second, this exercise should be incorporated 
into our systems of education, and alternated with study in all semi- 
naries of learning. 

The arrangements of time for this exercise, the amount to be taken, 
and the kind of exercise best adapted to accomplish all the objects 
desired, most naturally come next under consideration. I remai'k, 

1. This exercise must he taken daily. The necessity of this might 
be shown by reference to the laws of the human constitution. But 
it would be more in keeping with the design of this communication, 
to present facts and the results of experience, rather than an investi- 
gation into those causes which fall more legitimately within the pro- 
vince of the physiologist.* 

* See Appendix, Note A. 



43 

** Exercise is needed every day as much as food." Dyspepsy Forestalled. 

"That exercise may be useful, it must be daily." 

Disorders of Literary Men. 

"The body must be daily exercised." Catechism of Health. 

"Exercise ought to be continued daily and regularly." Caverhill. 

" There is no one, not actually laboring under disease, who should not con- 
sider it duty to appropriate a certain portion of every day to active exercise 
in the open air." 

Journal of Health. 

" Exercise, to have its full effect, should at least once a day proceed to the 
borders of fatigue." 

Dr. Kitchener. 

"Health depends on maintaining an equilibrium betw^een the organic, ani- 
mal, and intellectual lives. To preserve this harmonious balance, a certain 
amount of active muscular exertion must be daily taken in a pure and fresh 
atmosphere." 

Professor Harris, Medical Institution, Philadelphia. 

" I have been connected with this seminary for twenty-four years, and I 
have been engaged in study and professional duties more than forty years. 
From the whole of my experience, I have learned, that a considerable amount 
of regular exercise is indispensable to the enjoyment of vigorous health, and 
that vigorous health is necessary to the improvement of the mind by study ; 
I mean to that degree of improvement of which the mind is in itself capable." 

Rev. Dr. Woods, Andover Theol. Sem. 

" My experience and observation have convinced me of the importance of 
regular exercise for the preservation of health." 

Hon. John Quincy Adams, Mass. 

Our next inquiry respects the amount of time requisite for daily 
exercise. No accredited authority recommends less than two hours, 
as a general rule for students. Indeed, after much search in medical 
authors and standard works on education, I have found hardly an 
individual who does not recommend tnore. Some are in favor of two 
hours and a half; but a very large majority insist upon three hours 
as the least amount that will fully meet the necessities of the stu- 
dent. Not a few recommend four hours, and some even five and six. 
But there is a decided preponderance in favor of three hours a day. 
It may be remarked, 

2. The student should spend at least three hours daily in exercise. 
Like every general rule, this has its exceptions. The student may 
be laboring under organic disease, which might be aggravated by 
much exercise. Those also who possess little physical energy, and 



// 



44 

have never been accustomed to much muscular exertion, w^ould doubt- 
less find that amount at first too much for the system. Let such take 
it as they can bear it, gradually increasing the quantity, and they will 
find in a few months at farthest, that three hours of exercise daily 
will not exceed their actual necessities.* 

" I give it as my decided opinion, that the above allotted time, [three hours 
daily,] is not more than is necessary for most students. Five or six hours of 
severe mental labor a day, is as much indeed as the economy can bear without 
injury." 

Professor Harris, Medical Institution, Philadelphia. 

" For a close student, three hours in the twenty-four, of active labor, is 
certainly not too much. Perhaps it does not exceed the minimum." 

Professor Staughton, Ohio Medical College. 

J ^ " Three hours a day would not give too much time for exercise to a student. 

// I have been accustomed, in my lectures to under graduates in Cambridge, to 
advise them that two hours a day should be the minimum allotted for exer- 
cise ; and three, four, five or six hours, should be afforded in fair weather." 

Dr. Jackson, of Boston. 

"From two to four hours in a day, may be most advantageously employed 
in exercise." 

Dr. Mussey, Professor, Medical Department, Dartmouth College. 

"It appears to the present author to be an indispensable law of longevity, 
that we should exercise at least two hours every day in the open air, when the 
weather will permit ; and if the time be extended to three or four hours, the 
benefit wUl generally be greatly augmented." 

Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life, 

" The shortest time which will answer for the preservation of health, is two 
hours per day in the open air. It is far better to devote three hours to this 
object. Indeed those individuals who have derived the greatest advantages 
from exercise, have more commonly extended their out door efibrts, their 
walks, or their rides, or their gardening, or their herborizing, to four hours." 

Dyspepsy Forestalled. 

" He who does not spend several hours every day, in some active exercise, 
must inevitably suffer from a diminution of bodily strength, defective appe- 
tite, and imperfect digestion ; and become, sooner or later, the subject of 
disease." 

Health Almanac for 1832. 

" As a general rule, three hours each day, properly divided into two or three 
periods, would be a suitable quantity for close students. 

Professor Sewall, Washington, D. C. 



* A long series of experiments has taught me, that I am able to endure such 
labor with a broken constitution, and a very small share of physical force. The 
apprehensions of many on this subject I am confident are unfounded. Any man 
who is able even moderately to study, is able to work, provided he enters on this 
kind of exercise with caution, and pursues it with judgment." Professor Good, 
rich, Yale College. 



45 

" Three hours of exercise each day, is surely little enough for those who 
aim to have a sound mind in a sound body. The law of connection betweeen 
the healthful, vigorous and locomotive powers of the muscular system, and the 
state of the affections and operations of the mind, has not yet been sufficiently 
investigated. Facts show its existence and importance. How can any one 
who aspires to any force of character, act in conformity with this law, and 
keep his whole muscular system in a state of healthful, vigorous, and sponta- 
neous action, without affording it at least three hours daily of its natural and 
only source of nutrition, exercise. 

Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudett, Hartford, Conn. 

" From many years of experience and observation I am fully convinced that 
three hours of active exercise, daily, are necessary to repair the loss of 
strength, resulting from a course of severe study," 

Professor Goodrich, Yale College. 

" I should think that three hours a day would not be too much for a close 
student to devote to exercise." 

President Wayland, Brown University, 

" So far as I can judge from my own experience and observation upon 
others, I say, unhesitatingly, that three hours of bodily exercise daily is the 
minimum quantity, which can meet the demands of the human system, espe- 
cially if this exercise be taken at different intervals." 

Professor Hitchcock, Amherst College, 

" I am perfectly satisfied of the indispensable necessity of our studious 
youth and literary men giving more, and more constant attention to physical 
exercise. Three hours a day is not more than I should deem proper, to 
recruit and invigorate the powers of nature." 

Judge Story, U. S, Court. 

" In European countries three hours a day are thought but a very ordinary 
allowance of time for exercise and health. 

American Journal of Education. 

" Literary and sedentary men should devote several hours each day to exer- 
cise in the open air." 

Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted. 

" Three or four hours at least should be daily devoted to some species of 
bodily exertion." 

Disorders of Literary Men, 

" Three hours in a day is supposed by good judges to be the least amount 
of time which a student ought to devote to this important object ; and four 
hours would be better than three." 

Cornelius' Address, 

" The importance of taking a large portion of gentle exercise every day, 
can scarcely be overrated. Every student who wishes to preserve good 
health and spirits, ought to be moving about in the open air from three to four 
hours daily. * * * * If you wish, really, to possess the mens sana 
in corpore sano, of which the Latin poet speaks, rely upon it, with most students 
less win not answer. 

Miller's Letters on Clerical Manners and Habits, 



/ 
/ 



46 

" Even [after prescribing four hours of exercise each day for the youf 
student] when he is grown up, whatever be his office, he ought not to have 
less than three hours a day to employ in bodily exercise." 

Professor Salzman. 

"With regard to the amount of time which students should devote to 
manual labor, so as to promote the vigor of their bodies, and at the same time 
not to retard their studies, it appears to be the general opinion of those who 
have reflected on the subject, thai three hour's labor in a day, one half of which 
should be performed in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon, is 
preferable to a greater or smaller amount. I fully concur in this opinion : a 
lesser amount would not generally be sufficient for the purposes of health ; a 
larger amount would encroach on the hours which should be devoted to 
study." 

Dr. Post, Demonstrator of Anatomy, Coll. of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. 

Perhaps it may be objected that progress in study would he retarded 
by spending three hours a day in exercise. If the records of literary 
experience furnish demonstration of any thing, they prove that those 
who have spent at least three hours daily in appropriate exercise, have 
prosecuted study with more success than those who have exercised 
less. 

Upon the question, whether three hours of exercise a day would 
retard progress in study, the following testimony is conclusive. The 
importance of the question at issue is my apology for the number and 
length of the extracts which follow. 

" I have not a doubt that three hours a day, spent in proper bodily exercise, 
so far from inter.fering eventually with progress in the acquisition of know- 
ledge, of whatever kind, would promote it in a very important degree." 

Rev. Dr. Green, Philadelphia. 

«' From experience and observation, I am convinced that three hours spent 
each day in appropriate exercise would eventually facilitate, instead of retard- 
ing progress in study. Does any one speak of three hours as too much to be 
subtracted from the time of study? But is not the object of study, the acqui- 
sition of useful knowledge, and the improvement of the mind 1 Now if 
vigorous exercise, three hours in a day, will enable a student to do more in 
nine hours for the improvement of his mind, than he could do in twelve, 
without such exercise ; then, instead of saying, it would be wrong to take 
three hours for exercise from the time of study, he should say, it would be 
wrong to take so much from his improvement by spending three hours in 
his study, instead of devoting them to necessary exercise. It should never 
be forgotten that the knowledge acquired, does not depend half so much upon 
the leno'th of time spent in study, as upion the inienseness of the application ; and 
tliis depends upon that life and vigor of the mental faculties, which is so directly 
promoted by exercise." 

Rev. Dr. Woods, Andover TJieol. Sent. 

" I can say, with the strongest emphasis, that three hours of appropriate 
exercise each day will not retard progress in study." 

Professor Keith, Episcopal Theol. Sem. Alexandria. 



47 

«« Three hours each day, and for some students, and at some seasons, even 
four hours, if properly distributed, so far from eventually retarding, would 
greatly 'promote -progress in study.'" 

Professor Ripley, Newton Theol. Sem. 

"Instead of progress in study being retarded by three hours daily of appro- > 1 / 
priate exercise, it would be aided and accelerated'. Much more, I am confident, '' \ v 
might be done by the student in nine hours devoted to study, while three are ' I 
devoted to exercise, than in ticelve, or even /owrteen hours laboriously devoted 
to study without exercise. Many a student, to my certain knowledge, who 
imagined that he could not take time for exercise, has pored over his books for 
a whole day together, with a sort of stupid vacuity of mind, and has ended 
the day as he began it, without comfort, and without profit. To begrudge and 
stint the amount of time employed in wholesome exercise, is, of all parsi- 
mony, the most infatuated and delusive ; as it not only prepares the way for 
an interruption of study by ill health, but really makes "the mind, during the 
hours actually spent in study less clear, less active, less capable of grasping 
and mastering the objects of study towards which the attention is directed." 

Rev. Br. Miller, Princeton Theol. Sem. 

" I have not the slightest doubt that three hours a day systematically devoted 
to bodily exercise would be found to promote the intellectual progress of 
students, by imparting a vigor to the powers, more than sufficient to compensate 
for the loss of time." 

Rev. Dr. Ware, Cambridge Theol. Sem. 

"If men would be content to divide their time between study and labor, and 
dispense with play, I am confident they would accelerate their progress in 
learning by three hours devoted to labor." 

President Griffin, Williams College. 

"Three hours spent in exercise each day would rather accelerate than 
retard progress in study." 

President Chapin, Columbian College, Washington, D. C. 

" My observation and experience convince me that three hours spent each 
day in appropriate exercise would not retard progress in study. 

President Fiske, Wesleyan University, Middletoion, Conn. 

" By taking three hours, from the time generally devoted to study, the 
remainder will acquire an increased value, enough to make up for the loss. I 
do not doubt that this would be verified by experiment." 

President Humphreys, St. Johns College, Annapolis, Md. 

"The manual labor system of education will, on strictly physiological prin- 
ciples, enable the student to make greater advances in any given time of study, 
than can be realised by the system in general use. The apparent loss of 
time by the manual labor system will therelore prove to be an actual gain." 

Professor Mitchell's " Hints to Students." 

" If a student wishes to gain time for study that shall be felt for a course of 
years, let him make a law as inviolable as were those of the Medes and 
Persians, that three hours at least of the twenty-four, shall be devoted to 
exercise." 

Rev. Elias Cornelius. 



48 

"If our students would be careM to exercise as much as they study, they 
might study much more than they do. 

Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life. 

"From my own experience and observation, I am decidedly of the opinion 
that a man will accomplish more mental labor in the latitude of Georgia, with 
four hours of manual labor each day, than he can possibly do with less." 

Professor Steele, Camden Institution, Georgia. 

" If the student should give even six hours to exercise, this will leave him 
nine for sleep and meals, and nine for study, and probably he could make as 
great literary progress in this time, invigorated as he would be by bodily 
exercise for the work, as if he were to devote twelve or fifteen hours to 

"If there be any fact clearlj established in relation to this matter, it is that 
a man who devotes four hours daily to exercise, wiU make more progress in 
study in one hour, than he could do in three, with only one hour's exercise. 
Without sufficient exercise, the movements of the animal machine are heavy 
and labored, and the mind is clogged in the same proportion. The true way, 
therefore, for a student to gain time for literary pursuits, is to devote, without 
grudging, these three or four hours per day to giving strength, and freedom, 
and lightness of play to the numberless wheels, and delicate cords, and levers, 
and springs. Again T would repeat to those who hear me, thai to give these 
three or four hours per day to bodUy exercise in the open air, is a point of the 
last importance to the health of body and mind. Consult the history of the 
most distinguished literary men that have lived, and you will find that such 
was their practice, and that they impute to it their chief ability to accomplish 
so much as they have done. It is in vain to adhere rigidly to an abstemious 
diet, and to every other mode of regimen, if this be neglected ; for the student 
has no security against disease and premature debility. However various 
may be the opinions of distinguished physicians on other parts of this subject, 
here, so far as I know, they are unanimous, fi-om Galen and Pythagoras dovwi- 
wards. To disregard their testimony, is a mark of most disgusting self-con- 
ceit and presumption." 

Dyspepsy Forestalled and Resisted. 

" I cannot hesitate to reply that I think three hours is not too much time to 
be devoted every day to exercise, by every close student ; and with such exer- 
cise suitably distributed, I have no doubt every student would gain more in 
mental aptitude, than he would lose in time ; and that in fact, with three hours 
thus devoted to a preparation for his sedentary occupation daring the remain- 
ing hours of the day, he wiU make more rapid progress in his studies than 
without systematic exercise. By such exercise, all men would be in a con- 
dition to put forth more vigorous and healthful mental efforts of whatever 
kind." 

Dr. John James, Albany, N. Y. 

"Any amount of exercise less than will meet the actual demands of the 
system, must impede the progress of the student in study, and I have already 
expressed the opinion, that less than three hours will not meet these demands, 
unless in some peculiar cases. How then can three hours exercise impede 
the student's progress ? For, allowing him seven hours for sleep, and two 
for meals and recreation, he wdl still have twelve left for study. And how 
few minds are there, even in the stoutest bodies, that can endure as many 
hours of study as this; I mean real study, when the mind devotes itself 



49 

exclusively, intently and powerfully to the subject in hand, and not that torpid, 
snail-like, divided conalus, so common among students. Now, the fact is, there 
is a vast amount of this kind of study among scholars; and one important 
reason why it is so superficial and inefficient, is, in my opinion, that the nerves 
are in an irritated state, from a deficiency of exercise. I do know that I have 
often been able to accomplish more intellectual labor in one hour, after vigor- 
ous exercise for three hours without intermission, than in four hours previ- 
ously. I always calculate that my ability to study will be increased by 
exercise, until it becomes so excessive as to produce irresistible sleepiness or 
weariness. The effect of this amount of exercise upon the mind, (to answer 
your third question,) would be to strengthen it as it strengthens the muscles — 
to clarify the perception as it clarifies the blood — to quicken the operation of 
the suggestive principle a,s it quickens the circulat:o;i of the blood — ^to give 
the imagination a healthful play, by destroying its morbid and irregular ope- 
rations, just as it blunts a morbid sensibility of the nerves, and to develope, in 
just proportion, every part of the intellectual and moral character, just as it 
developes in fair and beautiful proportions every part of the physical system. 
These tendencies are iu such perfect accordance with my experience for the 
last twenty years, that I can no more doubt their reality than I can the effect 
of a certain amount of food in giving strength to the system, and of a certain 
degree of abstinence in producing weakness and leanness. It accords also 
with all my observation upon the habits of ssdentary men." 

Professor Hitchcock, Amherst College. 

"The effect of this amount of exercise upon "intellect, moral feeling, habits 
and character," would be most happy. Let him who hesitates act like a phi- 
losopher — make the experiment : at first, if he has been neglectful of exercise, 
he must expect for a season to pay the penalty of this neglect. It will be 
irksome, fatiguing, and he may imigine, exhausting to his mental energies. 
But gradually both his bodily and intellectual system wiU acquire congenial 
strength, and unite in developing the powers of the whole man. Let the expe- 
riment be made faithfully for a year, and the advocates of three hours a day 
being devoted to exercise need not fear the result. 

Rev. T. H. Gallaudett, Hartford, Conn. 

/ 

"My own experience answers unhesitatingly, that in such a case, not only / 

the progress of the student will not be retarded, but it will be sensibly and >/ 
greatly accelerated. I hold so decisive an opinion on the subject, that I am 
satisfied, CEtens panZ;us, a student with three hours' exercise and nine hours 
of study, will accomplish far more in a series of years, than another with four- 
teen hours study and no exercise." 

Hon. Thos. S. Grimke, Charleston, S. C. 

" If three hours daily were spent in suitable exercise, it would not retard 

progress in study." 

Hon. Willard Hall, Delaware. 



"No student can fully develope his powers of mind, or call them into the 
most successful action, ■«0th any thing less than three hours of regular, vigorous 
exercise ; and I feel perfectly satisfied that the sameman pursuing this course 
would accomplish more for himself, and for the world at large, in ten years, 
than he would in thirty, in the old way." 

Rev. John Todd, Northampton, Mass. 

"It may be proper to say a few words in relation to the number of hours we 
have recommended to be devoted daily to exercise. Five or six hours a day 

7 



■:/ 



50 

taken from study, may appear to some to be too long a period, and to leave too 
little time for the acquisition of knowledge. We believe, however, that upon 
actual experience such will not be found to be the case. Nine or ten hours 
in summer, and eight or nine in winter, when judiciously occupied, will, we 
are convinced, be amply sufficient for all the purposes of education, whether 
literary, scientific or professional. Let the mind, during that period, be 
intently occupied on any given task, and the amount of labor it is capable of 
performing will surprise those who have been imaccustomed thus to concen- 
trate their attention. The names of individuals celebrated in history for the 
depth, variety, and extent of their mental attainments — of men whose writings 
are the most voluminous, and who have labored most effectually in the cause 
of literature and science, have not belonged to those whose lives were passed 
in the privacy of their studies. Most of them have, on the contrary, acted a 
conspicuous part on the theatre of active life, as politicians, warriors, or 
statesmen, as travelers, lawyers, or physicians. So constantly, indeed, have 
they been placed before the eyes of the public, that it is difficult, often, to con- 
ceive where they found the time requisite to acquire the vast stores of know- 
ledge which they possessed, or to execute the mental labors of which they have 
given evidence in their printed works. Julius Csesar said that in the midst of 
his battles, he " always found leisure to attend to the stars, and to the celestial 
bodies. Scipio too, found time in the midst of the occupation of arms, for the 
pursuit of learning ; and Epaminondas, notwithstanding the time he bestowed 
upon the political concerns of his country, and in the prosecution of those great 
public measures by which he raised the commonwealth of Thebes to its sub- 
sequent greatness, nevertheless, excelled most of his contemporaries, by the 
extent of his learning. Though an active and skilful general, he was 
scarcely less celebrated as an erudite philosopher. These examples, and 
thousands of a similar character, both ancient and modern, might be adduced,, 
to show how much may be done in improving the mind without subtracting 
from the hours required for the healthful exercise of the body, by a proper 
division of the day, and the regular and assiduous occupation of every portion 
of it — idling no time away, in that languid state of inaction by which the 
powers of the mind and body are equally relaxed. On the contrary, even in 
the seclusion of the study, much time may be wasted, which might otherwise 
liave been profitably devoted to exercise, or to the active duties of society. 
The success and profitableness of mental application is not to be measured by 
the number of hours devoted to books, or which are spent with the pen in 
hand. How many students may with truth exclaim, " my time is lost through 
idleness, even when I appear to be most diligent." 

Dr, D. Francis Condie, Pkiladelpkia. 

" Those who labor, and those who do not, are classed together indiscrimi- 
nately ; nor do I think the progress of the student is impeded even by five 
hours' exercise daily. Indeed I am assured that in a course of study, compri- 
sing a number of years, it would be considerably promoted." 

Professor Caldwell, Maine Wesleyan Manual Labor Seminary. 

"Some who have paid nearly all their expenses by their labor, have out- 
stripped any of those who have not belonged to the laboring department." 

Report of Trustees of Maine Wesleyan Seminary, 

" The trial we have given the system has afforded the most gratifying 
results in promoting bodily health and intellectual vigor ; and we believe will 
far surpass the old system of voluntary and irregular exercise, in promoting 
study, and making successful students." 

Rev. Mr. Clemson, Principal Manual Labor School, Wilmington, Del. 



51 

'•After an experience of twenty years in teaching the higher branches, I 
can say without hesitation, that I have never witnessed such rapid progress in 
study, as that which has been made by the manual labor students of thia 
college." 

President Cossitt, Cumberland College, Ky. 

" It is a well known fact in this seminary, that since systematic exercise, in 
different ways, especially in the workshop, has been practiced, the health of 
the students has been more vigorous and uniform than before, and their appli- 
cation to study more diligent and pleasant, and far more successful ; and I 
have no doubt that a still farther increase of their exercise would be attended 
with correspondent increase of health and improvement." 

Professor Woods, Andover Theol. Sem. 



Having ascertained the amount of daily exercise, which seems 
most effectually to meet the bodily and mental necessities of the stu- 
dent, as a general rule, the next inquiry in order is, shall this exercise 
be taken in three successive hours, or shall it be divided into two or 
three portions, and distributed over the day 1 

Much valuable medical testimony upon this subject has been 
received. For the sake of brevity I will condense this testimony into 
a few general rules, embodying the substance of the whole. 

As a general rule, this exercise should not be taken in three sue 
cessive hours, but should be divided into at least two portions, and 
performed at different periods of the day. It should not be taken either 
immediately before or after meals. Half an hour should intervene 
after exercise before meals, and an hour after meals before exercise. 
It should not commence before sunrise, nor continue after sunset ; and 
in the summer it should tiot be performed between the hours of nine 
in the morning and four in the evening. If divided into two portions, 
one had better precede the morning, and the other the evening meal, 
from the first of May to the latter part of October. During the 
remainder of the year, let it be commenced one hour after breakfast, 
and the same time after dinner. These of course are mere general 
rules, subject to exceptions and modifications, according to circum- 
stances. 

2. : The exercise sliould be moderate.* A sudden transition from a 



* This is especially necesssary for those who have never been used to manual 
labor. Such will probably find at first that even one hour of moderate labor will 
produce fatigue, and perhaps on that account temporarily retard rather than pro- 
mote progress in study ; but let not such infer from this that exercise does not 
promote energy of body and activity of mind. The invalid rising from a fit of 
sickness is fatigued by a short ride- The next day he can ride farther with less 
fatigue. Let him pursue this course from da,y to day, and perhaps within a month 
he can ride for hours not only without fatigue, but will derive from the exercise 



52 

state of inaction which has continued for hours, to violent muscular 
exertion, always injures, and if the student has not been accustomed 
to much bodily effort, may prove fatal. With respect to the degree 
of effort, moderately vigorous, muscular exertion is the perfection of 
bodily exercise. 

We proceed next to inquire what kind of exercise is best adapted 
to the student, and most suitable to be incorporated into a regular 
system. It would be foreign to the subject of this communication to 
discuss the merits of every kind of bodily exercise. Some of the most 
common modes only will be noticed. Walking, riding on horseback, 
and swimming, are all good, but cannot be reduced to system in con- 
nection with an institution. 

Military exercises have been incorporated with literary institutions 
to some extent in this country. In a strictly military school, like that 
at West Point, such exercises are not out of place. But our systems of 
education will need no such appendage as an apprenticeship to the 
art of war, until fighting becomes the appropriate vocation of man, 
and human butchery the ordinary business of life. If we would have 
the glare of military glory eclipse every other, and a military spirit 
the only spirit which the people shall dehght to honor, by subjecting 
our youth to influences adapted to excite a warlike spirit, we employ 
all the instrumentality requisite to secure such a result. 

Within a few years gymnastic exercises have been introduced into 
this country from Germany, and adopted at some of our institutions. 
By some they are extolled as constituting the perfection of bodily 
exercise, and by others pointedly condemned. The question before 
us is not whether spending thi-ee hours daily in gymnastic exercise is 
preferable to idleness ; but whether that kind of exercise has as stronop 
claims as any other, to be incorporated into a system of education for 
universal and jyermanent use ; whether it is as beneficial as any other 
to the body, the mind, the morals and character of the student, and 
equally favorable in its influence upon the community. 

There are a few obvious objections to this system of exercise which 
have more than mere plausibility to recommend them. 

great refreshment and vigor. Any considerable change in one's hahifs produces 
temporary inconvenience, and often actual pain, even though this change may be 
a great improvement, demanded by the laws of the constitution, and indispensable 
to the permanent vigor and comfort of the body, and to the highest efficiency of 
the mind. But v/ill a wise man refuse to rectify the perversions of his system 
because the effort will be attended with temporary inconvenience? If he had 
dislocated a limb would he refuse to have it restored to its place, on account of the 
pain connected with the operation ? 



53 



1. It is dangerous. Probably too much stress has been laid upon 
this objection ; still it has some force. Sprains, dislocations, fractures, 
ruptured blood vessels, and death, have all been entered upon the records 
of gymnasiums in our own country.* True, no kind of exercise is exempt 
from the possibility of accident ; but in some the liabihty is great, in 
others inconsiderable ; and certainly those which are least perilous are 
to be pre^rred for a system of exercise, if they are equally beneficial. 

2. It is unnatural. Many of the muscular movements required 
are such as are rarely demanded by human circumstances. Besides, 
the violent action which certain muscles are required to perform makes 
a disproportionate demand upon the energies of the system, and 
destroys that equilibrium which is necessary to the perfect perform, 
ance of all its functions. 

3. It is unpMlosopMcal. It is ill adapted to interest the mind. 
An individual cannot be permanently interested in any active exercise, 
unless that exercise produce changes in the state of other objects. 
The child will build cob-houses and push them down, " by the hour 
together ;" but will it push against the wall for an hour ? No. Why 
not ? Because no visible effects are witnessed, and the production of 
man f est effects is a main element of interest in muscular movements. 
Give the boy a knife and a stick, and he will amuse himself with 
whittling for a long time ; but how much amusement would he find in 
rubbing the stick with the back of his knife ? In the former case there 
IS the production of visible effects, not upon his own body merely, but 
in altering the condition of another object. In the latter there are none. 
But perhaps it may be said, men should put away childish things. 
Grant it : but this principle belongs to the mental constitution, and 
governs the man as well as the child. Let any one try the experi- 
ment. Let him take an axe and cleave the air for half an hour, or 
chop wood with the handle, or swing his scythe where there is nothing 
to cut but vacuity, and he will gladly fly for relief to some kind of 
exercise where every stroke produces visible effects. Then his mind 
will have something to amuse it. It will be furnished with appro- 



and studious. 



Gymnastic exercises are unsuitable to those whose chief habits are sedentary 
ttiiu studious. To resort immediately from the closet to the gymnasium to try 
feats of agility and strength is dangerous, and has proved fatal." Professor 
Caldwell, Med. Dep. Trans. University, 

" Gymnastic exercises are in general too violent for persons who employ the 
greater part of their time in sedentary pursuits." Dr. Post, Demonstrator of 
Anatomy, College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. 

" The exercises of the gymnasium, are also attended- with some hazard of 
personal injury ; and not a few instances might be cited of very considerable 
evils resulting from this practice." Mitchell's " Hints io Students." 



54 

priate food. That kind of exercise is best, other things being equal, 
which most effectually withdraws the attention of the student from 
himself, and pleasantly, not intensely, absorbs it in other objects. 
How shall this be effected ? Shall we call upon the mind to force out 
its attention by arbitrary volition, to fasten it upon some object which 
awakens no interest, and hold it there by main strength ? Or shall we 
surround the mind by objects fitted to awaken its interest and allure 
its attention — objects whose intrinsic qualities are a magnet with 
sufficient attraction to draw it out and delight it ? 
\ Gymnastic exercises produce few visible effects, and therefore 
cannot pennanently interest the mind. When the mind is not 
pleasantly occupied, the body soon becomes fatigued, and both are 
jaded rather than refreshed by the exercise. It is the testimony of 
experience that exercise, in order essentially to benefit, .must furnish 
the mind either with a great variety of different objects for its amuse- 
ment, or else with continual changes in the state of the same objects. 
The consciousness of effecting these changes ly one's own efforts adds 
greatly to the interest which they excite. 

The main exercises of the gymnasium merely move the limbs and 
change the posture of the body ; as bending forward and backward, 
swinging the arms and legs, hanging and swinging by the hands and 
feet, whirUng over poles, climbing ropes and ladders, jumping, swing- 
ing, dumb-bells, &;c. The novelty of such exercise is soon worn 
away. The movements become spiritless, and not only cease to 
interest, but excite aversion. But perhaps it will be said, an interest 
may be excited in them by other considerations : ambition may be 
appealed to, and a glow of interest kept up by the effort to excel 
others. True, and that is an argument against such appeals. Intense 
emotions are excited, and that state of mind is produced, which, more 
than any thing else, counteracts all the good effects of the exercise. 
Besides, such appeals excite to bodily efforts of too violent a character. 

Perhaps it may be said further, that sufficient interest ought to be 
given to the exercise by the consideration that it is promoting health. 
If we would make a well man sick, or kill a sick man by piecemeal, 
we need only require him to practice regularly some formal muscular 
movement, and to keep up his spirits by such a sing-song as this : 



I'm doing this for my health, 
I'm doing this for my health, 
For my health, for my health, 
I'm doing this for my health. 



^ 



He must have a soul rather o/dly set to music, who could derive 
exhilaration from such a hum-(S^"um as this.* 

The Journal of Health, speaking of " exercise with the dumb-bells, 
jumping the rope, and other similar diversions," says : 

" They have seldom been productive of any good effect. They are deficient \ 
in interest, and do not, to use the language of another, incorporate into a sys- 
tem of actions for life. They should nevei-, therefore, be adopted, to the exclu- 
sion of those species of exercise which engage the mind, at the same time that 
they call the limbs into action. 

Task exercises, (under which denomination may be included all those which 
are resorted to merely for the sake of muscular exertion,) are pronounced, 
by the author of "Essays on Hygeia," to bear pretty much the same relation 
to health, as the castig-ations of the penitent do to piety and virtue. Neither 
have they at the time that salutary effect which employment, connected with 
interesting or pleasurable ideas, has within certain linyits." 

" The mere movement of the limbs, as a stated task, wiU have a far less 
beneficial effect upon the health of the system, than if the mind be at the 
same time pleasurably, but not too intensely occupied. Hence, to those who 
are able to command the time and means, botanical pursuits, or the cultivation 
of a garden; and to all, various mechanical occupations, or any innocent recre- 
ation, wiU be a means of increasing very considerably the salutary effects of ; 
bodily exercise." 

4. Gymnastic exercises excite aversion and contemj^t in the public 
mind. The laboring classes, who make up nine tenths of the commu- 
nity, are disgusted and repelled by the grotesque and ludicrous antics 
of the gymnasium. They say, leave wooden horses to children, and 
monkey tricks to monkeys. A negative objection to gymnastics may i 
be stated in passing, and that is, the time spent in them affords no \ 
pecuniary advantage; and another, that the exercise benefits only the \ 
student; makes no contribution to the resources of his country, and j 
no addition to the means of human subsistence. 

* It ha« become quite fashionable for invalids to travel " for their health." 
First comes the note of preparation. Trunks are metamorphosed into drug shops, 
stuffed with blister plasters, burgundy pitch, cordials, tinctures, linaments, and 
divers " drops" for head-ache, tooth-ache, stomach-ache, and sore throat ; ban- 
dages and lint for accidents ; soda for " heart-burn," hartshorn for fainting, and blue 
pills for the liver. Disinfecting powders, peppermint lozenges, and smelling bot- 
tles, constitute the body-guard, and are stationed in the pockets. Thus equipped, 
the invalid sallies forth, compasses sea and land, feeling his pulse, inspecting 
his tono-ue, listening to the palpitations of his heart, measuring out doses, and 
watching symptoms. If the man would chase his shadow round the world he 
would show some common sense. Even that would withdraw his attention, in a 
measure, from himself — the great desideratum in the restoration of health. Let the 
invalid travel by all means, but never merely for health. To go poring over his 
ailments is suicide. Instead of darkling amidst the murky damps of his disease, let 
him escape for his life into fresh air and clear sunshine, and forget his health in the 
interest excited by the pursuit of other objects. Seek lost health and it hides, 
pursue it and it flies ; but give up the chase and pursue other objects, and it comes 
to meet you of its own accord. The principle applies with equal force to the 
preservation as to the restoration of health. 



vi/ 



The MANUAL LABOR SYSTEM next claims our attention. The distin- 
guishing peculiarity of this system is, ihat agricultural or mechaniqal 
labor is the employment of the student during those hours which in 
other institutions are left vacani. This system makes no infringe- 
ment upon the hours of study. The only difference between manual 
labor institutions and others, is the. disposition which is made of the hours 
of relaxation. In the former, they are devoted to healthful and profit- 
able exercise ; in the latter, to any thing or nothing, at the option of 
the student. 

I. The manual labor system furnishes exercise natubai. 

TO MAN. 

That agricultural and mechanical employments are natural to man, 
is an obvious inference from the arrangements of Providence. God 
designs that the human race generally should engage in these employ- 
ments.* He has placed men in circumstances which require it ; and 
are those kinds of exercise for which infinite wisdom designed the 
human system, ill adapted to that system? Can human ingenuity 
devise an artificial system better adapted to the necessities of man 
than that which God has prescribed ? | * 

" Manual labor has in my opinion decided advantages over gymnastic exer- 
cises. In addition to the superior moral influence which it is calculated to 
exert, the kind of exercise is better adapted to promote the healthy and vigor- 
ous action of the system." 

Dr. Brown, late Physician to the New-York Hospital. 

I " It appears, I think, from principle, as well as experience, that horticul- 
ture and agriculture are better fitted for the promotion of health and sound 
morals, than any other human occupation." 

Dr. Caldwell, Professor, Med. Depart., Transylvania University, Ky'. 

II. It furnishes exercise adapted to interest the mind. 
j Agricultural exercise, and various mechanical employments interest 
I the mind of the student, 

* This remark has no reference to those employments which are not necessary 
to man's convenience and comfort, and which minister only to the factitious wants 
of luxury and effeminacy. 

t Before Adam sinned, God commanded him to "replenish the earth and subdue 
it." After his transgression, it was added, " In the sweat of thy face," or bv 
bodily exertion, not mere intellectual labor, "shalt thou eat bread." Thus 
not only revealing to Adam that peculiarity of his physical constitution, which 
made exercise necessary, and furnishmg him with a rule of action based upon that 
necessity, but also promulging the universal law of human well being. A 
clergyman in New-York, said recently in a sermon, "God has decreed that man 
shall eat his bread in the sweat of his face. This is nature's law, as well as God's 
command. If a man breaks it, and eats his bread without sweating, he cannot 
digest it ; and that is nature's part o/the penalty-" 



57 

1. By presenting a variety of objects to allure his attention. 

2. By the successive changes effected in these objects hy his own 
efforts, and the different forms which tliey continually assume under 
his hand, as the work goes on. 

3. By the exercise of ingenuity, tact, and skill, which they demand. 

4. By the associating idea of their usefulness, not merely to him- 
self, but to his countr}', and the whole family of man, in multiplying 
the comforts and conveniences of life; in promoling practical habits, 
and giving countenance to industry. 

" No moda of exercis3 can in ordluary cas3s be compared, either as to 
profit or pleasure, with soai3 kind Ol ejjicient labor. 

Rev. Dr. Woods, Andover Theol. Sent. 

" If two or throe hours ouT'it to ba spent in healthful exercise, why not 
employ those hoars daily in tha pleasanl occupation of horticulture, agriculture, 
or mechanics. 

Rev. Dr. Alexander, Princeton Theol, Sent, 

"Agricultural and machanical employment have another advantage over 
gymnastic exercises in this, that on account of the science and knowledge, the 
skill and ingenuity which they reqairj, they create a more various and perma- 
nent interest in themselves, thus combining utility and fleasure in a higher 
degree than gymnastics ; and manifestly exercising tiie mind greatly and 
efFtJctually in common with the body, much more than their coinpatitor can. 

Hon. Thomas S. Griinke, Charleston, S. C. 

" I am equally convinced, that manual labor of some kind, is peculiarly 
adapted to this end," [for the purposes of exercise.] 

Professor Gjodrich, Yale College. 

" Gymnastic exercises are not so well calculated as agricultural or mecha- 
nical employments, to alFord an agreeable relief to the mind, after the fatiguing 
studies in which it has been employed. It is true that the exercises which 
have been a,liudedto, have the appearance of amusement, and are captivating 
at Jirsl sight ; but they are likely to become dull and wearisome wiien the 
attraction of novelty has worn o.T. On the other hand, those employments 
which moderately exercise the muscles, and which yield valuable products to 
tho3e who are engaged in them, will keep up a more permanent interest in the 
mind, and exert a more beneficial infiu3uceon the health. 

Dr. Pas.t, Demonstrator of Anatomy, Coll. of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. 

Omit practical agriculture and mechanics in a system of education, and ever}' 
reflecting man must pronounce it incompls/'e and defective, whether as regards 
bodily health or mental resources. Employment in the field or the workshop,, 
alternating with the common scholastic exercises in schools and colleges 
would be a relaxation from the studies,, purely intellectual^ and not a labor." 
Dr. John Bell, Philadelphia, Editor of the Journal of Health. 

III. Its moral effect avould be peculiarly happy. 

This follows as a legitimate inference fi-om principles which have 
been already discussed at length in this communication. The testi- 

8 



68 

I mony upon this point, from all the manual labor schools in the country, 
/ is most explicit ;i and if inserted here would fill many pages. I select 
from the mass, the three following, on account of their brevity : 

" The moral character of our school has been singularly favorable, and we 
mention it because we believe the system of connecting manual labor with 
scientific pursuits has had no small share of influence. There have been no 
cases of dismission for disorderly conduct, and not an instance in which any 
thing more than gentle admonition was required ; no strife or contentions 
with each other, and no complaints about fare. A private family of brothers 
of the same blood, under the same paternal roof, could not present, in the 
main, a more harmonious society than our beloved institution." 

Report of the Teachers of Oneida Institute, Whiteshoro' , N. Y. 

"The result is most happy in its influence on piety, and operates most 
effectually as a test of character." 

Rev. Mr. Clemson, Principal Manual Labor School, Wilmington, Del. 

"The moral influence of the system is salutary and powerful. The differ- 
ence between this and the common system in respect to the ease with which 
the students are governed, (if government it may be called,) is truly 
remarkable." 

J. H. Coffin Esq. Principal Manual Labor School, Greenfield, Mass. 

IV. It would furnish the student with important practi- 
cal ACQUISITIONS. 

A practical acquaintance with agriculture and gardening with some 
knowledge of mechanical employments, and skill in the use of tools, 
are accomplishments more than convenient to every man whatever 
his station in life ; accomplishments befitting the nature of our 
government, and the character of a republican people. 

" Who would not wish for the capacity to help himself, on a thousand little 
occasions, at home and abroad, when a familiar acquaintance with the use of 
common mechanical implements, would enable him to avoid those many vexa- 
tions which are wont to arise from the absence of mechanics and their want 
of punctuality ; which are so precisely suited to annoy the very persons who 
take the least care to provide against them." 

President Humphreys, St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. 

I V. It would PROMOTE HABIT3 OF INDUSTRY. 

Habit is formed by the repetition of single acts. To be constantly 
employed is to be forming a habit of industry. Constant occupation 
is the peculiarity of the manual labor system. 

VI. It would PROMOTE INDEPENDENCE OF CHARACTER. 

Exercise is the universal law of improvement for the faculties of 
the mind, as well as the powers of the body. If the memory is to be 



59 

improved it must be exercised. If scope is to be given to the imagi- \ 
nation, stability to the judgment, and energy to the reasoning powers, | 
the object can be accompHshed only by the exercise of the several 1 
powers. Giving enlarges benevolence ; daring increases courage ; J 
enduring augments fortitude ; and self reliance ■promotes independence^ 

Independence is an intelligent reliance upon one's own resources. 
If we would develope this principle we must call it into action : and 
how shall it be called into action except by creating a necessity for its 
action by throwing the individual upon his own resources ; thus not 
only developing but multiplying them ? That system, then, by which 
the student can support himself with the least amount of aid from / 
others, is manifestly. better calculated than any other to promote inde- / 
pendence of character. This, the manual labor system accomplishes. J 

When will a child learn to walk if it is never set upon its feet? 
He who bears all his weight upon others is in a fair way to become 
a cripple ; and he must either lose his legs or throw away his 
crutches.* 

VII. It would promote originality. f 

The student who has been accustomed for years to tax his own 
resources for the supply of his wants, has formed a habit of inesti- 
mable value to his mind. Habituated to resort to himself for the 
means of his own support, he would be far more likely to construct his 
intellectual fabrics from the materials of his own producing. Instead • 
of being a petty retailer of other men's wares, he would have a -whole- 
sale manufactory of his own. Let a demand be made upon such a 
man for thought, and instead of applying to his library for aid, and 
fumbling over every thing, from a commentary to a catechism, he will jr" 
dig in the depths of his own mine, coin the metal in Jus own mint, and| 
stamp it with his own image and superscription. 

VIII. It is adapted to bender permanent all the manlier I 

FEATURES OF CHARACTER. \ 

A system of seclusion, inactivity, idleness, and dependence, has a | 



* " I cannot here omit particularly noticing a quality of the manly character 
which our effeminate education is continually rendenng more scarce. This is a 
certain wise confidence in our own powers, which prevents us from crying out 
for help, or falling into despair on every trifling occasion— a quality which must 
be at the bottom of every g/eat or little enterprise, and which is indispensably 
necessary to enable us as men and citizens to preserve a certain independence." 

Salzman. 



60 

tendency to weaken the strong points of the character, and render it 
sickly and effeminate. 

On the other hand, a system requiring activity, industry, exposure, 
energetic action, and self rehance, incorporates into the still forming 
character, the elements of firmness, decision, perseverance, courage, 
constancy, and generous self-sacrifice. It produces a commodity 
which the exigencies of our own age call for with deafening clamor, 
hut which is a scarcity in the modern market — manhood, full grown 
manhood.* 

iX. It would afford facilitiks to the student in acqui- 
ring A knowledge of human nature. 

/ Whoever would understand human nature must lay bare the springs 
of human action ; the pulsations of the naked heart must be seen. 
The natural successions of thought and feeling must be marked as 
they come and go, and these lessons must be conn'd often and long, 
if he would be more than a mere smatterer in the science of human 
character. But how is the student to witness these exhibitions? 
Students generally are introduced into the higher classes of society, 
as they are called ; and they will hardly get a glimpse at them there ; 
where etiquette is law, actions are measured by rule, and the heart 
studiously covered up. The middling and lower classes of society, 
which are not wrapped up in the innumerable folds of ceremony, nor 
entangled in the endless meshes of fashionable forms, furnish the best 
text book in the science of the heart/ But how shall the student 
/ narrow down the distance between the learned and the laboring 

I classes, and thus get sufficiently near the latter to see them as they 
are? He may mingle with them a lifetime, but if he cannot make 

i them feel at home with him, he can never see that unobstructed flow 
of thought and feeling which constitutes nature. He must first 
remove that instinctive aversion and prejudice which keep them from 
him; and these cannot be dune away effectually except by removing 
the causes'which produce and perpetuate them ; and the main cause 
is total dissimilarity in habits and mode of life. Similarity of habits 
strikes a common level, prodaccs familiarity of intercourse, establishes 
a bond oi' union, and excites a feeling of mutual interest. 

Let our students put on a working dress and spend three hours a 

^ » » In a word, industrious habits of daily labor will metamorphose a book worm 
into a MAN— a man prompt and ready for all emergencies— a man of the nine- 
teenth century." Professor Staughton, Med. Coll. Ohio. 



61 

day in agricultural or mechaiiical employment, and they would disarm 
the laboring man of his prejudices, and beckon him' toward them. 
That discontent, jealousy, envy, disgust, and those heart burnings, 
which keep in a ferment the laboring classes in the vicinity of our 
higher seminaries, would give place to kindlier feelings. These 
classes would become approachable ; a brotherhood would be estab' 
lished, and the student would enjoy a variety of facilities for acquiring 
a knowledge of men as they are, wh:ch would otherwise be denied 
him. 

X. It would greatly diminish the expense of education. 

This is not mere theory, as the following statements will show : 

"The students generally pay their heard by their labor; some pay all their 
expenses ; and some do even more than tliis." 

Report of Maine Wesleyan Seminary. 

"The pecuniary benefit which the students receive, is ih.e vayment of their 
beard by their lajor. Some do much more." 

Report of Oneida Institute. 

"The amount of labor performed by our students (two hours per day) 
diminishes the expense of their education more than one third." 

President Cossitt, Cumberland College. 

"After deducting an expense of about fifty-six dollars for the use of team 
and too]s. and for contingencies, and about two hundred and fifty dollars for 
the use of ihe land, will leave a balance to the students of about one dollar for 
every eighteen hours labor. If the land could be furnished without expense 
to the students, they would be able, during tlie agricultural season, to defray 
nearly or quite th? whole of their expenses, which are ordinarily from $2 00 
to $2 25 per week." ^ 

Report of Manual Labor School, Greenfield, Mass. 

"The pupils have by manual labor paid nearly one half their expenses of 
education." 

Report of the Pennsylvania Manual Labor Institution. 

"In the mechanics' shop connected with Waterville College, an experi- 
ment has been made, the results of which, though obtained under great disad- 
vantages, are certainly of the most cheering kind. The profits derived by 
many of the students from their labors in the shop have been very considerable. 
By devoting three hours of each secular day to business of this kind, they have 
earned from one to two dollars a week,/which in an infant establishment like 
this, ought to be considered as highly encouraging, and as furnishing good 
ground to expect that when the system is properly matured, and the neces- 
sary fundd are provided, the industrious student wih be able to earn at least 
sixty dollars a year." 

Report of the Mechanical Association, Waterville College, Me. 



62 



The members of Lafayette College, .Pennsylvania, reduce the 
expenses of the institution, by manual labor, one third, on an average, 
as appears by the report of 1832, and some of them pay their entire 

expenses. 

At the Maryville Theological Seminary, East Tennessee, the 
expenses are diminished more than one half by manual labor. 

The following is an extract from the Third Report of the Lano 
Seminary at Cincinnati, Ohio, which has just been received ; 

DIKECT AND INDIRECT PECUNIARY RESULTS OF MANUAL LABOR. 

Fiftv of the best farmers earned 5 1-2 cents per hour each, and 
worked upon an average 16 hours per week ; average amount 
earned, allowing each to have worked durmg the whole forty 
week's sessions, , ,„, , j /in nA 

Those who worked the regular 18 hours per week, earned, 4U W 

Several of the above have earned during the vacation by farming, 
teaching, agencies, or otherwise, o i o 

Twentv-eiffht of the best mechanics earned upon an average H 1-^ 
cents per hour, and worked 16 hours per week ; average amount 
earned, allowing each to have worked during the whole 40 ^^ ^^ 

week's session, , ci oi 

Those who worked the regular 18 hours per week, earned, bi ^1 

Some of the above earned during the vacations, 4" "" 
Seven regularly trained mechanics earned 12 1-2 cents per hour ; 
averagi time of labor per week, 16 hours ; amount earned, 

allowintr each to have worked the whole 40 weeks, WO UU 

Those who worked the regular 18 hours per week, earned during ^^ ^^ 

the 40 weeks, , . .- j fin nn 

Such of the above as worked durmg vacation, earned, ou uu 

The foregoing results are taken mostly from institutions that have 
been in operation for a number of years; and where the amount of 
pecuniary profit may for the future be expected rather to increase 
than diminish, as many of those difficulties which usually embarrass 
the commencement of such an enterprise have been already 

overcome. 

Many manual labor schools have gone into operation within the last 
year. With two or three exceptions, specific details of their opera, 
tions have not been given to the public* 

* » Allusion is made to the economy of this plan. If we suppose the highest 

• f t^ Ko ittnmed is defravinff the expense of board, and this to be valued at 
S per vearfor L hund/cd Itudents'this would be $5,000, and eight year's 
ftndv 1ft40 000 Suppose there should be ten thousand students m a course of 
edt^ationin our country, the annual saving would be five hundred thousand 
^nUnrtr ^um eoual to that raised for all the great benevolent objects of the 
day and for eigS years study, four millions!" Speech of Rev. Mr. Frost, at 
Masonic Hall. 



63 

XI. It would increase the wealth op the countky. 

Such a system would enable the sons of our farmers and mechanica 
to acquire a thorough knowledge of those branches of science whose 
practical ^ application to agricultural and the mechanic arts would 
greatly increase both in quantity and quality the productions of the 
soil, and enhance the value of mechanical products. The benefits 
resulting to the farming interest especially, from a thorough acquaint- 
ance with the sciences of chimistry and geology are little appre- 
ciated in comparison with their practical importance.* 

The system loould increase the wealth of the country in another respect. 
In our academies, high schools, colleges, and professional seminaries, 
there are not far from thirty thousand youth. Let each of these fill 
up three hours a day with productive labor, and he makes no incon- 
siderable contribution to the resources of his country.- He multiplies 
the means of subsistence, and augments the common stock of 
conveniences and comforts. These thirty thousand, by laboring 
three hours per day, would furnish an addition to the productive labor, 
and of course to the wealth of the country, equal to the labor of at 
least five thousand working men, who should labor ten hours per 
day. Besides this, the manual labor system would increase the 
wealth of the country, by contributing to its health and muscle, and 
no less to its mind. 

XII. It would tend to do away those absurd distinctions 
IN society which make the occupation of an individual the 

STANDARD OF HIS WORTH. 

Let the contents of our sixty colleges, and fifty professional semi- 
naries, with a thousand academies and high schools, pour themselves 
into our fields and workshops, and there, for three hours each day, ply 
the implements of agriculture and the mechanic arts, would it not 



* A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, who is also a practical agricultu- 
ralist, has kindly furnished me with the following facts and opinions : 

" In the state of Massachusetts there are about four hundred townships. In 
each of these townships there are at least one hundred farmers who experience 
an average loss o? fifty dollars each, per annum, in consequence of lacking that 
chimical knowledge necessary for the judicious mixing of manures, and adapting 
them to the different kinds of soil, in order to obtain the greatest product, from 
the culture of different grasses, grains, and vegetables. I have not a doubt that 
the farmers in this state annually sustain a loss of two millions of dollars, for 
the want of that knowledge of the practical uses and applications of chimistry, 
geology, &c. which they might obtain in a manual labor institution, and which 
most of them could not afford to procure elsewhere." 



f 



64 

have a powerful tendency to render labor honorable, and the laboring' 
man more respected? Would it not create sympathies between the 
learned and the laboring" classes, a permanent community of feeling, 
and identity of interests ? 

The thousand repulsions arising from dissimilarity of habits which 
have so long operated to estrange them from each other, cease with 
the causes which produced them. Instead of being driven asunder 
by jealousies, and smothered animosities, they approach each other 
with looks of kindness, and form a compact, based upon republican 
equality, and the interchange of mutual offices of courLesy and kind- 
ness. He who does not perceive in such a system a tendency to 
these results, has mingled little with men ; and however profound in 
other things, is a novice in human nature. 

XIII. It would have a tendency to render permanent ovn 

REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS. 

This would be the result of such a state of society as has just been 
noticed. The elementary principles of republicanism are equality 
and reciprocity; its basis industry, economy, practical habits, general 
intelligence, and morality. We have seen that the connection of 
manual labor with study ig,/ calculated to produce these effects, and 
consequently to perpetuate our republican institutions. 

In the conclusion of this part of the subject, the comparative advan- 
tages of agricultural and mechanical labor demand a brief notice. 
Agriculture and gardening afford a much greater variety of muscular 
exercise than mechanical labor. They have the advantage of purer 
air ; they habituate the student to atmospheric changes, enable 
him to endure hardships, and can be engaged in without a previous 
apprenticeship. Mechanical labor is more cleanly, generally more 
profitable, and can be performed in all weathers and seasons. 

The committee are respectfully referred to the following extract of 
a letter just received from Dr. John Bell of Philadelphia, editor of the 
Journal of Health : 

"Is agricultural or mechanical labor most healthful for students?" My 
reply if, that the former, or agricultural labor, should, if we can choose, be 
preferred. Employed in this way, the whole body is more or less called into 
action ; since, in most kinds of field and farm-yard labor, there is successive 
and alternate movements of tlie upper and lower limbs ; the attitude is either 
erect, or readily becomes so, between the frequently repeated fits of muscular 
effort ; and the chest has, in consequence, greater freedom for expansion and 



65 

the inhalation of air, which moreover is purer, more vivifying, and cordially 
stimulating in the fields than in doors. By agricultural labor a person 
becomes also inured to vicissitudes of the atmosphere, in respect to tempera- 
ture,and hygrometrical and barometrical states, and is thus saved the many dis- 
comforts, and actual disadvantages, to vsrhich the mere student and habitually 
sedentary man are liable, from occasional exposure, to extremes and inclem- 
encies of the weather. 

In advocating this kind of employment, I of course suppose that a student 
will not confine himself to one of the many varieties of field and farm-yard 
labor. Were he to do so, the benefits which I have just stated would not be 
obtained. A man who should do nothing but plough, would indeed become 
strong ; but he would be awkward, and not unlikely acquire a raised shoulder, 
and a deviation of his spine from the right line. Similar inconveniences 
would foUow mere mowing and cradling grain. 

Digging and hoeing, on occasions excellent exercises, might, if the exclu- 
sive ones, give an ugly stoop to the individual, and interfere with the dilata- 
tion of the chest and fireedom of respiration. All these kinds of exercise 
together, with harrowing, sowing grain by broadcast, cutting down and split- 
ting timber, ought to be had recourse to in due succession, and with a reference 
to the strength of the student, or to the bodily infirmity from which he wishes 
either to entirely escape, or if a sufferer under it, to be cured. 

Most varieties of mechanical labor are attended with the disadvantages of 
only allowing of the exercise of particular parts of the body. Commonly 
it is the upper limbs which are in motion, and they with equal force, 
whilst the lower limbs are entirely quiescent ; the posture is either standing 
or sitting, and too often leaning forward or on one side. The limgs are more 
apt to suffer, both from the impediment to suitable dilatation of the chest, and 
the want of fresh, pure air, and likewise from the fine particles given off 
from the various matters used in the mechanical arts. Most of these objec- 
tions may, it is true, be obviated by preventing many persons from being at 
work in the same room ; by the constant introduction of fresh and pure air 
from without ; by a change in the labor, so as to require, in different days, 
different postures, and varieties of muscular movement." 

r 

L, Objections Consideked. 

1. " The manual labor system will have a tendency to destroy a grace- 
ful carriage, and make the student stiff-jointed and awkward in his 
movements." The objector probably inferred this from the fact that 
the muscles of farmers and mechanics sometimes lack that kind of 
flexibility indispensable to graceful motion. But let him make the 
cases parallel before drawing parallel inferences. The manual labor 
student exercises his muscles three hours per day ; the farmer and 
mechanic ten or twelve. The exercise of the former supplies the 
demands of the system ; that of the latter exceeds them, and partial 
muscular rigidity is the consequence. 

Three hours of exercise each day, is indispensable to the full deve- 
lopement of the body, and the perfection of manly proportion. Instead 
of making the student stifT-jointed, it is the very thing to lubricate his 
joints. Instead of making him awkward in his movements, it subjects 



66 

his muscles to the control of volition, and enables him perfectly to 
govern their movements. Instead of destroying easy, natural motions, 
it legitimately produces them. Awkwardness of motion results from 
imperfect control of the muscles :* this state of the system is produced 
mainly by two causes : First, too much muscular exertion ; and 
Second, too little. Day laborers illustrate the former, and literary 
men in general the latter. 

The first overwork their muscles, and the consequence is, a degree 
of inflexibility. The second exercise them so little that they become 
relaxed and flaccid, and their arms and legs loosely bag about as the 
law of gravity dictates. The day laborer takes on board so large a 
cargo, and sinks his vessel so deep, that it ploughs straight ahead, 
little heeding the rudder. The literary man neglects to take 
even enough for hallast, and consequently his vessel makes most 
ungainly lunges. If the objector had been a physiologist^ instead of 
opening such a battery upon the manual labor system, he would have 
turned it point blank against the non-manual labor system, assured that 
every shot would tell. For the fact is notorious that literary men as- 
a body, can most conscienciously plead not guilty to the charge of 
gracefulness of motion, and a natural, commanding, manly carriage. 
A single glance at the present system of education unravels the mys- 
tery of the fact, and explains its philosophy, f 

2. " The manual kibor system would have a tendency to make the 
student a sloven.^'' Even if it were so, the advocates of manual labor 
would not be left utterly comfortless. The reflection that the system 
would not inflict upon the world a generation of dandies, would be no 
small solace. 

Better, infinitely, that the bar, the bench, the hall of legislatio^n, and 
the pulpit, should be filled with men careless of their appearance, and 
slovenly in their dress, but whose firm set frames and brawny muscles 
indicate their sex, and whose original minds poise themselves upon 
their own centre, rather than be desecrated by mincing things of pow- 

* The case of Casper Hauser, whose history has just been translated from the 
German, and published in Boston, is an illustration in point. 

t " It is by exercise alone that we acquire a full and easy control of the various 
muscles of voluntary motion, and thus become enabled to assume, at pleasure, 
those attitudes, and to perform those flexures and gestures with perfect ease, 
which contribute to the personal dignity and grace of man. Hence exercise is 
as necessary for personal grace and dignity, as it is for agility and strength. And 
it is doubtless more owing to the want of proper exercise than to any thing else, 
that so many students and professional men are more awkward and uncouth than 
the plougliboy." Sylvester Graham, Lecturer on Health and Longevity^ 



67 

•der and perfumery, nauseous specimens o{ diluted manhood, scribbling 
sentimentally in albums, and lisping insipidity. Let " the sacramen- 
tal host" be led on to victory by sturdy clowns in shaggy homespun, 
"but of overmastering intellect and lofty daring, rather than be officered 
by knights of the reticule, valorous in onset upon cologne bottles, 
and prodigies of prowess among sprigs of rosemary. 

But let us examine the objection. " The manual labor system will 
make the student slovenly in his dress." How ? " Why, when he labors, 
he will put on a leather apron, a working frock, slouched hat, clouted 
shoes, &c." What next ? Will he fall in love with them ? " Why, he 
will become accustomed to them, and of course careless about clean 
clothing, and quite contented with dirt." Answer: a man who is 
occasionally sick, will learn how to prize health ; and not only so, but 
will be more careful of his health while it lasts : so a man who is 
occasionally in his " duds," will learn how to estimate better clothes ; 
and not only so, but will be more careful of his better clothing while 
he has it on. Upon the principle of the objection, if a man were to 
be placed in circumstances which made it necessary for him to soil his 
hands once or twice a day, he would become accustomed to dirty 
hands, and of course careless about clean ones, and gradually pass 
into a sloven — a very pretty theory, but contradicted by universal 
experience. The world over, occasional experience of discomfort 
gives zest to the enjoyment of comfort, and increases the desire to 
make the most of it while it lasts. 

3. " It would have a tendency to degrade the mind, making it dull and 
plodding, and restraining the excursions of genius.''* How ? " Why, it 
results from the law of association. The field and the workshop have 
nothing that is adapted to elevate and enliven. The objects with 
which the student comes in contact, are monotonous, untasteful, and 
unintellectual." 

This objection is vastly sentimental. It rises quite into the region 
of poetry. 

If the exquisite taste and delicate sensibilities of the objector had 
been counselors in the work of creation, the human mind would have 

* " Our country has been fruitful in examples of the influence which early agri- 
cultural and mechanical pursuits have had in developing the mental powers, and 
qualifying men for important enterprises, and deeds of high daring. Nothing 
has appeared so much to make the mind acute, fruitful in expedients, decisive, 
persevering, and firm in purpose, as these employments ; and this has evidently 
been from the influence they have had, in expanding and perfecting the physical 
and moral powers." Dr. James C. Bliss, N. Y. 



68 

been spared the outrage of being embedded among such gross mate- 
rials, as flesh and blood, and located in such a dusty world as this ; 
ever in contact with the foul ground, the eye offended with the sight 
of clods, the olfactories outraged with scent " most villainous," and 
the whole man thus acquiring, " by the law of association," a ditch- 
going tendency. If the objector had been chief manager, balloons 
would have been human habitations, and men aeronauts, sailing high 
above earth's vapors, dust and smoke, and strong, unsavory scent. 

A formal answer to this objection would savor strongly of the ridi- 
culous. It is therefore returned to the objector for revision and 
amendment. 

The attention of the committee is respectfully requested to the fol- 
lowing extract of a communication which I have recently received 
from Dr. John Bell, editor of the Journal of Health. It is not intro, 
duced in this place as an answer to the preceding objection, but on 
account of its important practical bearings upon the general subject. 
I make no apology for the length of the extract, and none will be 
demanded by those who read it. 

/ «' Hitherto I have limited myself to speaking of agricultural and mechanical 
labor iii connexion with health ; but if their importance as a branch or part of 
education were the question, the inquiry wonld take a wider, and if possible, a 
still more satisfactory range. Omit practical agriculture and mechanics in a 
system of education, and every reflecting man must pronounce it incom- 
plete and defective, whether as regards bodily health, or mental resources. 
Employment in the field or the workshop, alternating with the common scho- 
lastic exercises in school and college, would be ?, relaxation from the studies 
purely intellectual, and not a labor. The mind would still be acquiring ideas, 
and those of the most enduring kind ; since they are the effect of impressions 
made by the objects themselves, and not by written or verbal descriptions. 
Habits of attention would be formed, and a love of observation of the pheno- 
mena exhibited by external nature, and of the gradual and wonderful muta- 
tions accomplished by art, would be a strong and ruling passion. His body, 
accustomed to active and vigorous effort at the suggestion of the mind, a 
person feels more confidence in his own resources; is prompt and ready 
in moments of difficulty [or danger ; and whether on sea or shore, in the 
crowded haunts of men, or in lonely travel, he has means of extricating him- 
self from imminent peril, which others, differently educated, would never think 
of, or, if knowing, want the energy and presence of mind to turn them to 
account. The addition of agricultural and mechanical employment to theo- 
retical learning cannot but enrich the mind with a large stock of ideas and 
imagery, and enable it to indulge in new and varied combinations of known 

\ facts and opinions, and afford it much greater facihties for striking out fresh 
paths for investigation and discovery. 
However much we may admit the original or innate differences among 
men, in regard to their aptitude for acquiring knowledge, and shining as 
inventive geniuses, (and few will carry the belief farther than I do) we must 
still, it seems to me, confess that unless materials be furnished from the 
external world for the mind to work on, its displays will be obscure, unsatis- 



69 

factory and unprofitable. The poet, the orator, and the more professed moral 
teacher, will be successful, not alone in proportion to the innate strength of 
their intellectual faculties, including imagination, but to the extent of their 
communings with men, and their long and varied observations of things. 
Without these, all the knowledge obtained from books ; all the research and 
deep study within college walls ; all the recitations and exercises after the 
most approved rules of the most learned pedagogue,' will not enable a 
man to teach and counsel his fellow men with success ; to enlist their sympa- 
thies for whatever is great, noble, and good, in real or fictitious life ; to 
charm them with the magic creations of the pencil and chisel ; or, irf fine, to 
make them wiser, better, and happier. This assertion may seem at first view 
to be hazarded rather as expressing an inference deduced from the theoretical 
premises already advanced, than the reality of the annals of literature, and the 
history of genius. I am content to change the mode of argument, and to rest 
our cause on the result of an appeal to these latter sources. If I mistake not, 
we shall find that a life of adventure, hardships encountered on sea and shore, 
long and fatiguing travel, mechanical and agricultural employment, and field 
sports and athletic exercises, and even the turmoil of a camp, however much 
most of them were severally regarded at the time as vexatious interruptions to 
study and the cultivation of genius, they wei'e in fact main contributing causes 
of the success and renown of many of the most distinguished names in arts, 
science, and letters. Foremost in the list, among the worthies of our own 
country, is Franklin, whose very necessities, and employment as a journeyman 
printer, by making him a slower reader of books, made him more thorougldy 
imbued with what he did read, and whose mode of life, and early associations, 
gave his mind a practical as well as an inquiring turn, and compelled him to 
a slow and gradual development of his powers, and corresponding discoveries, 
which it is very doubtfiil would ever have been obtained in the continued sun- 
shine of prosperity, and in the enjoyment o? gentlemanly and scholastic leisure. 
He was eminently the working man and student, the printer, and the philo- 
sopher. 

The two Stephenses, father and son, were both of them among the best 
and most laborious printers, and the most learned men of their age. " The first, 
or Robert, author of the great Thesaurus of the Latin language, did more," 
says DeThou, "to immortalize the reign of Francis I, than all the monarch's 
own most famous exploits." Henry Stephens, the son, was one of the most 
learned men that ever lived; and although toiling in a laborious occupation, 
under the pressure of misfortune and penury, and often wandering about in 
quest of mere subsistence, he was so voluminous an author, that if he had 
spent his whole life in writing books, he would have left enough for us to 
admire in his industry and fertility of mind. His Thesaurus of the Greek 
language, the fruit of twelve years laborious application, is well known to 
the learned. 

Brindley, the celebrated engineer, was till near the age of manhood a carter 
and ploughman, afterward a milhoright, in which employment his mind was 
trained for the grander exhibitions of inventive genius in superintending the 
construction of the Bridgewater canal, with its tunnels, aqueducts, and locks. 

Watt, as mathematical instrument maker and general engineer, was placed 
in the path of discovery the more easily and successfully, by his combining 
with practical science the study of its theory. His steam engine, if not the 
unavoidable, was at least a natural result of his frame of mind, and mecha- 
nical pursuits, despite the obstructions interposed by delicate health and not 
unfrequent sickness. 

Bowick, the celebrated engraver on wood, and author of the History of 
Quadrupeds, delighted from his earliest years in observing the habits of ani- 
mals; and it was this fondness, which could only have been indulged in the 



70 

il-eedom of a country life, that gave rise to hia first attempts at drawing. He ever 
continued to be fond of all the manly and invigorating sports of the country. 

Ferguson, while yet a shepherd and farm servant, was a student of astro- 
nomy. His first attention to mechanics, when only seven or eight years of 
age, was from witnessing the employment of a beam resting on a prop, to 
raise part of the roof of his father's cottage, which had fallen in. 

Not dissimOar to this was the early life of our own Rittenhouse, who, when 
a young man, used to draw geometrical diagrams on his plough, and study 
them as he turned up the fiirrow. 

The advantages of early difficulties, and obstacles to study, are, it seems to 
me, forcibly shown in the case of Sir Humphrey Davy. With his strong 
natural vanity, and dash of coxcombry, and love of show, it is not likely, had 
he been the son of a gentleman in affluent circumstances, in place of that of 
a poor wood carver, and an apprentice to an apothecary in a small town, that 
he would have displayed that early love of science, and perseverance in 
experimenting, which made him eventually the most brilliant discoverer in 
chimical science of his day. 

Many of the best historians were men who traveled much, or had been 
themselves busy actors in the scenes and events which they describe. The 
names of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, 
Julius Ceesar, Froissart, Philip de Comines, Sir Walter Raleigh, Frederick the 
Great, De Thou, Clarendon, occur to me at the moment, in support of this 
position. 

In continued toil, and often imminent peril, while leading the life of a sea- 
man, Columbus rendered himself the most accomplished geographer and astro- 
nomer of his age, and kept up that acquaintance, which he had begun at 
school, with the different branches of elegant literature. It was at sea, too, 
that Cook acquired for himself those high scientific, and it may be added 
literary accomphshments, of which he showed himself to be possessed. Lord 
Collingwood was only thirteen when he entered the navy, and during the 
remainder of his life he was on shore but very short and few periods ; and 
yet, as is evident from his correspondence published since his death, he writes 
in an admirable style, and proves himself to have been a man of varied literary 
attainments. 

Of the successfiil union of mercantile busmess with literature and phi- 
losophy, we have instances in the first Cosmo de Medici, Gugo, Ricardo, 
and others. 

Poets, too ofl;en considered as mere dreamy enthusiasts, and unfitted for 
the common affairs of life, have been for the most part nice and accurate 
observers of men and things ; have travelled much, and been subjected to 
vicissitudes of fortune. Homer, as far as we can glean from tradition, was a 
great pedestrian, and had carefully noted the customs of the various people, 
and appearance of the countries described in his two grand poems, but more 
especially in the Odyssey, ^schylus was a soldier as well as poet, and 
shared in those ever memorable battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Plateea. 
Sophocles was of the same school as ^schylus, whom it was his fortune to 
excel in poetry as well as to surpass in military rank, since he commanded 
the Athenian armies, and in several battles shared the supreme command with 
Pericles. He also filled the office of chief magistrate, or archon, with credit 
and honor. Virgil was quickened to a display of his powers by misfortune, 
and for the success of his most finished poem, the Georgics, he was mainly 
indebted to a practical knowledge of rural affairs, and the changes and effects of the 
seasons, acquired by his residence in the country, untU he was forced to visit 
Rome with his father. Milton was accomplished not only in the learning of the 
schools, but in a knowledge of the world by foreign travel, and mixing with 
men of all ranks. He was fond of, and displayed himself to much advantage 



71 

in the different manly exercises avd sports. I was near omitting the contem- 
porary and rival of Shakspeare, the celebrated Ben Jonson, who, at one period 
a soldier, and at another a mason with trowel in hand, still continued to find 
time for the composition of some of the finest specimens of dramatic poetry 
in the English language. Burns' sweetest poems were inspired by the 
scenery and associations connected with the fields and streams of the country 
over which he loved to roam, and in which he for years toiled as farmer. 
Scott, fond of 7'ural sports and exercises, and of wandering amidst the wild and 
romantic scenes of his native land, has given them and himself imperishable 
fame, by describing them in harmonious numbers, and by throwing a new 
charm over history, in his account of times gone by. His chief, at any rate 
great charm, is fidehty of description, whether of the features of a country, of 
the personages introduced, their costume, armour, and accoutrements. AU. 
there, to be well and truly portrayed, must have been seen and examined, or 
the fictitious drawn fi-om the model of real life actually before him. 

No college student, with his cigars, late hours, moping and dyspepsy, his 
fear of the fresh air, and of rural and domestic occupations, can ever hope to 
attain to any of these excellencies. His complaints, and whinings, and meta- 
physical jargon in rattling metre, or namhy-pamby rhyme, are not poetry. He 
must go abroad in the full light of heaven, and roam over mountain and valley, 
converse with all degrees of men, know their ways and wants, and the applica- 
tion of science to every day^s business, before he can pretend to be a poet. Sel- 
dom, in the routine of scholastic or even common life, is the mind roused to 
a full display of its energies : various if not forceful appeals are required for 
it to do itself entire justice. 

On occasions, indeed, it would seem as if the intellect necessarily must 
receive the quickening impulse of strong and impassioned feelings. 
The case of Byron is an illustration of the first opinion. Another notable 
instance is met with in Alfieri, the chief of Italian dramatic poetry. He tra- 
versed Europe over and over, with all the eagerness of earnest pursuit, and 
yet unknowing what he wanted. At last the secret was revealed to him ; 
his ardent temperament only preyed on itself, until the external world fur- 
nished him with materials, and study gave him the ability to fashion them 
into the animated forms of poetry. The forceful energy imparted by active 
participation in civil strife, and the proscription following defeat, is shown in 
the fate of Dante. It is his keen observation of character, his multiplicity of 
individual portraits, obtained in the struggle between Guelph and Ghibelline 
in Florence, that imparts such strong, sometimes involuntary interest when 
we peruse his grand poem, or series of poems it may rather be called, com- 
posed by him when exiled from his native land. Similar misfortunes, and a 
still more chequered life, were the lot of the famous George Buchanan. The 
interruptions to the acquiring of knowledge, by the bustle and agitation of a 
soldier's life, would seem, to most persons, so great as to forbid any addiction 
to study, certainly any advancement in science. .. Yet, it was in the period of 
his life in which he was a. soldier in Holland, that the great Descartes laid the 
foundation of most of those mathematical discoveries which subsequently gave 
him so much celebrity. Of a different order of genius, but also commencing 
his life as a soldier; was the inimitable Cervantes. He was detained five 
years a captive in Algiers ; and even after his return to his native country, 
was treated with such signal injustice, as to be thrown into prison. It was 
here that he wrote the first part of Don Quixote. Buchanan was a soldier 
for a time : he composed his celebrated Latin version of the Psalms, in a 
Portuguese prison. Of Ben Jonson having been also a soldier, I have 
already spoken. The early life of penury and toil led by GifTord, has been 
well and forcibly described by himself. 

The two celebrated orators' of antiquity may be adduced to show how much 
can be accomplished by persevering use of bodily exercise, added to habits of 



72 

mental occupation. Demosthenes strengthened a weak voice, and cured him- 
self of indistinct articulation, by declaiming while ascending the brow of a hill 
or walking amid the noise of the waves on the sea shore. Cicero, when he 
first appeared in the forum, was in such weak health, that his friends des- 
paired of his life. One of our young promising lawyers of the present day, 
would probably be content with enjoying the sympathy of his fellow citizens, 
for his infirmities, and in order to keep up their interest in his state, he would 
speak longer and louder than allowed by the weakness of his chest, smoke an 
additional number of cigars, perhaps drink his brandy and water, and sit up 
late at night, to show his studious habits, and his contempt for the rules which 
give the ignorant countryman health and cheerfulness. At last our youth of 
fair promise dies, a victim to his intense ardor for study and professional 
renown ; and (but this is not told) to his silly obstinacy in continuing to smoke 
and drink, and to sit up late, and indulge in habits of bodily indolence. Not so 
acted Cicero : he abandoned, for a time, Rome and the forum, and traveled 
into Greece and Asia Minor, acquiring bodily vigor, and at the same time 
improving himself in the graces of oratory. 

The sovereigns who have shone most conspicuously in the annals of the 
world, were those who from fortunate early habits, or from their kingdoms 
being plunged in intestine or foreign wars, led a life of activity, often of hard- 
ship, and even personal exposure ; such as the emperor Julian, the English 
Alfred, Charlemagne, Harry IV. of France, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, 
Peter the Great, of Russia, and in our own day. Napoleon Bonaparte. 

The ancient philosophers were for the most part men of action. It was 
reserved for modern times, and an age boasting of its civilization and science, 
to admit the creed, that philosophic contemplation is incompatable with a 
discharge of the active duties of life ; and that for the mind to develope all its 
energies, the body must be kept inactive. Not thus reasoned and acted the 
great man of Greece, Socrates, the son of a statuary, spent, himself, the first 
part of his life with chisel and mallet in hand. Nor, when encouraged to ele- 
vate himself to the study of philosophy by Chile, under Archelaus and Anax- 
agoras, did he, like our modern book-rvorms, think himself fireed from the duty 
of defending his country in the field of battle. He fought, it is known, with 
rare valor, and was so fortxmate as to save by liis courage two of his friends 
and disciples, Xenophon and Alcibiades. His lectures and his teachings were 
oftener under the broad canopy of heaven, in the groves of the academy, or on 
the banks of the Ilyssus, than in the cramped space of man's architecture. 
Plato, though more favored by noble birth and the inheritance of wealth, than 
his master, Socrates, was not on this account inclined, like most of our young 
men in similar circumstances, to indolence and debasing pleasures. His body 
was strengthened by gymnastic exercises, and his mind cultivated with the 
study of poetry and geometry. After living- twenty-eight years a disciple of 
Socrates, he traveled over nearly all the then civilized portion of the earth, 
Greece, Sicily, Magna Grecia, and Egypt. Thus prepared, our wonder is 
less, that for forty years, the groves of the academy should resound with the 
voice of the philosopher uttering the most sublime doctrines in ethics, politics, 
and human nature in general, in the language of the most seductive eloquence. 

With the name of Xenophon, who does not associate ideas of a skilful gene- 
ral, an accomplished and eloquent historian, and a profound and persuasive 
philosopher. But why continue an enumeration which must be fresh in the 
memory of every reader. The name of Pythagoras must not however be 
passed over in silence, connected as it is with so much that is practical in phi- 
losophy, pure in ethics, and amiable in common life. Skilled in all the learn- 
ing of his age, Pythagoras was also celebrated in early life, for his strength 
and dexterity in gymnastic exercises ; and he first made himself known in 
Greece at the Olympic games, by obtaining, in his eighteenth year, the prize 



73 

for wrestling. He was not content with the accomplishments and knowledge, 
imposing as they may have seemed, which he gained in Greece. His powers 
of observation were strengthened, and his memory stored with a vast and varied 
collection of facts, connected with the condition, duties and capabilities of 
mankind, by foreign travel in Egypt and Chaldea. 

The rules for early education, inculcated by Pythagoras, and so successfully 
carried into effect by an immense concourse of followers and disciples, are 
peculiarly worthy the notice of, and imitation by, the executive committee for 
promoting manutl labor in literary institutions. Here we discover carried 
into full practice, upwards of two thousand years before their attempts, the 
plans of PestalJzzi and Fellenberg. How painful the reflection, that the most 
natural and rtasonable system of education, the most conformable with sound 
theory, and ihat which has been again and again, in so many remarkable 
instances, snd even in entire communities, proved to be both practicable and 
efficient, should have been so long, and still is so generally neglected, or misunder- 
stood and opposed. 

After perusing this long letter, I feel that in sending it to you I shaU unduly 
tax your patience, although it was written in conformity with your special 
invitition; and I am almost tempted to cancel no small portion of it. But 
you will, I am sure, make due allowances, in consideration of the circum- 
stmces under which it was written — in haste, and in the hours snatched from 
professional calls, and the discharge of other equally paramount duties. This 
must also be my excuse for not reviewing with care, or copying out and giving 
a better arrangement to what I now send you. The offering is made, how- 
ever, with perfect good will, and my best wishes for the success of the society 
which has chosen you, sir, as its official organ for agency and correspondence. 

With great respect, I remain, yours, 

JOHN BELL. 

4. ^^ If the labor sJiouM he a requisition, a youth of high spirit would 
never submit to it. " The whole college course is a routine of requisi- 
tion. Students are required to rise at a given time in the morning. 
But what matters that to a youth of "high spirit?" He'll show the 
faculty that a " young man of blood" will get up when he pleases. 
The bell rings for recitation : very well, let it ring. " I'm a young 
man of high spirit; I'll not submit to dictation." In a word, his 
spirit is quite too high to study, to recite, to write composition, or to 
comply with any of the " requisitions" of the institution, and just high 
enough to entitle him to immediate graduation, with the highest honors, 
of upstart, ignoramus and dunce. 

All admit that requisitions of some sort must be imposed upon the 
student. He must have lessons assigned him, and be required to 
recite them. But why require him to do these things ? Because, 
without system nothing can be done to any purpose. And regulations 
are indispensable to every system. If then, requisitions are neces- 
sary for the improvement of the student, and he submits to them 
cheerfully because they are necessary, will he refuse to submit to regu- 
10 



74 

lations requiring such an amount of daily exercise as will strengthen 
the body, invigorate the mind, guard the morals, fortify the habits, and 
give compactness and energy to character 1 If his spirit is high 
enough to constitute him a patriot, will he show his patriotism by 
refusing compliance with those requirements, which, in addition to all 
these benefits, increase the productive labor of the country, the only 
permanent source of its wealth — modes of exercist by which he 
makes labor honorable, and the laboring man a brother ; and by which 
he throws the weight of his example and influence into the scale, 
whose preponderance is to decide the perpetuity of our free institu- 
tions ? Would he fain make the world believe that he is h youth of 
high spirit ? Then let him show it by his acts. Instead of being 
dandled and lullabied through his education, carried in the arms, and 
fed upon the pap of a parent's wealth, let him stand upon his own 
feet. Let him make drafts upon the resources of his "high 
spirit," and eat the bread of his own earning. In a word, let him hail 
those regulations, which enable him to procure his education, at least 
in part, iy his own efforts.* 

5. " Even if the labor were optional, a high-minded young man would 
feel himself above such drudgery." Then let him take a lesson of Paul, 
the tent maker ; of Socrates, the statuary; of Moses, for forty years 
a shepherd, after having been for forty years a. prince, and before being 
for forty years the leader and the law-giver of a mighty nation ; 
of the "sweet singer of Israel," a king, and a " keeper of sheep in the 
wilderness ;" of Cincinnatus, the Roman Dictator and a. farmer ; of 
Elisha, a prophet and a ploughman ; of John, the "beloved disciple" 
and a fisherman ; of William Tell, the deliverer of Switzerland, and 
a mountain peasant ; of Thomas Scott, the commentator, and a gra. 
tier ; of Franklin, the statesman, the ambassador, the philosopher, and 
printer ; of Roger Sherman, the mentor of Congress, the chief justice 

* "A youth of " high spirit ! !" These are no longer wor^s of mystical import. 
The community are so frequently enlightened into their meaning by practical 
comments, there is little danger that their definition will pass from memory. The 
youth of" high spirit" in our colleges immortalize themselves by deeds befitting 
their native sublimity ! Their lofty aspirations find vent in the carrying away 
of gates in imitation of Samson, in storming hen-roosts at midnight, barricading 
doors, cutting bell-ropes, smashing windows, throwing fences across streets, 
cropping horses' ears and tails, defacing monuments, strewing filth in sacred 
places, draining mud puddles for amunition to be expended upon freshmen, dis- 
guising their persons, and parading the streets"" with music of kettles, tin horns, 
shovels, grubbing-hoes, frying-pans and whistles ; assaulting and maiming peace, 
able citizens. Such "high spirited" youth will never submit to the indignity of 
manual labor. From such the objection comes ; to such belongs the honor ; and 
I leave them ♦« alone with their glory." 



75 

^f a state, and a shoemaker ; of Rittenhouse, the Astronomer, and a 
Worker in brass and iron ; of Samuel Lee, professor of Hebrew in the 
University of Cambridge, England, and a carpenter.* 

Some remarks in a letter received not long since, from the Hon. 
Daniel Mayes, of Kentucky, professor of law in TransylvaniajUniver- 
sity, are so perfectly in point here that I subjoin the following extract: 

" There are here, as every where else, individuals with whom labor is dis- 
reputable, and who might, and probably would oppose the manual labor sys- 
tem. This class, however, is composed of individuals of weak or perverted 
understanding, who have no influence except that which is exerted over minds 
as chaffy und worthless as their own. That such should stand aloof, I con- 
sider fortunate ; for, in my opinion, jfill any hterary institution with heads 
such as those are, who conceive themselves to be too good to work, and you 
will break that institution down ; for they cannot be educated ; the mind ia 
not there*, and no literary institution can make mind. As education cannot 
■create the raw material, but can only prepare it for usefulness ; it follows of 
course that he who has not sense enough to see that labor is honorable, can- 
not, by any system of education, be made a useful man." 

6. " There is no necessity of making exercise apart of the system, or 
of making puMic provision for it. Let the student he urged to exercise., 
and then he left to manage for himself." This is exactly the plan now 
pursued in our colleges and other seminaries. The presidents and 
professors urge upon the students the importance of exercise. They 
reason, they exhort, they remonstrate, they appeal lo conscience, and 
what is the effect ? Why, th^ students listen, assent, applaud, per- 
haps solicit a copy for the press, publish, and there it ends, until ano- 
ther alarm bell is rung^some are startled, take a few turns round 
the room, swing chairs, lift at the mantle-piece, perhaps run to the 
wood-pile, seize the saw and drive it with a vengeance, make stout 
resolutions, follow them up a few days, then become irregular — their 
zeal evaporates, and they stop short. The history of every hterary 
institution in the land, proves that students cannot he induced to take 
exercise regularly and sufficiently, unless it is made a part of the system. 
A distinguished professor in one of the oldest theological seminaries 
in the country, after urging with earnestness and eloquence the impor- 



* " Samuel Lee, professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge, England, 
was 17 years of age before he conceived the idea of learning a foreign language. 
Out of the scanty pittance of his weakly earnings as a carpenter, he purchased 
at a book stall, a volume, which, when read, was exchanged for another, and so 
by degrees he advanced in knowledge. He had not the privilege of balancing 
between reading and relaxation ; he was obliged to pass from bodily fatigue to 
mental exertion. During six years previous to his twenty-fifth year, he omitted 
none of the hours usually appropriated to manual labor, and he retired to rest 
regularly at ten o'clock P. M. At the age of thirty-one years he had actually 
taught seveuteen languages." 



76 

tance of regular exercise, said in the conclusion of his remarks to the 
class, " But still I know you will not do it : I never knew students that 
would." 

"I see young men almost daily, who, after all that can be said to them, are 
going on, undermining their health, and in a fair way to prostrate their health 
and strength, before they are ready to enter on their professional career. 
This is a great evil. Whether any thing can be done to furnish an effec- 
tual remedy I know not. This I know ; that I should hail the man who 
should propose such a remedy, as one of the greatest benefactors of the church 
and of the world. 

* * * * For this deplorable evil, I can suggest no remedy which satis- 
fies my own mind. To provide means, and perfectly adequate means, for 
giving young men engaged in study a sufficient amount of exercise, is not a 
difficult thing. But to persuade young men to make use of these means ; to 
overcome the lassitude which disposes them to sit still when they most 
urgently need exercise, hie labor, hoc opus est. I have seen nothing that would 
effect this, for any lengtli of time together, and have sometimes doubted 
whether this object would be gained in any other way than by appointing, in 
aU our principal seminaries, a professor of bodily exercise. I have 
exhorted and warned and entreated young men on this subject with persevering 
importunity, and almost tears, with very little effect. 

"I speak on this subject with the more feeling, because when I entered on 
theological study, I was warned, entreated, and conjured, to pay due attention 
to this subject : I thought, however, that as much exercise was not necessary 
for me as for most other persons, I in a great measure disregarded the counsel 
which an experienced friend had taken much pains to give me ; and the con- 
sequence was an injury which retarded my studies ; which has diminished 
both the usefulness and the comfort of my whole life, and of which I feel the 
direful effects to the present day." 

Rev. Dr. Miller, Princeton Tkeol. Sem. 

"Almost all close students injure their health because they will not he per- 
suaded to take exercise." 

President Wayland, Brown University. 

"Your system will depend for its whole efficiency on forming it in such a 
manner that every student who is educated in conformity with it shall not he 
able to avoid taking all the bodily exercise which the system prescribes. If it can, 
in part, be avoided, it assuredly will be avoided by a number ; and generally 
the most by those whose who most need to be driven to activity. All my 
experience confirms this remark." 

Rev. Dr. Green, Philadelphia. 

*« Sedentary habits fi-equently occasion such apathy and aversion to bodily 
effort, that students who are sinking mto the grave for want of proper exer- 
cise, cannot be prevailed upon to take it by the most earnest solicitations of their 
friends and physician." 

Dr. James C. Bliss, New-York. 

"Regular exercise only will form the requisite habits, and no student is 
safe imtil these good, permanent habits are established. Men are too much 
inclined to escape the force of the original sentence, which, both for them- 
selves and for the happiness of society, compels them to work. In a literary 
institution, particularly, it is apprehended, the majority may not wisely be left 



77 

to themselves. The Jews understood this better than we; for their children 
learned their trades." 

President Humphreys, St. John's College, Md. 

" One of the most alarming features of this evil is, that the fate of former 
victims has little or no influence on their successors. Like intemperance in 
ardent spirits, the delusion of each leads him to think himself safe until it is 
too late." 

President Fisk, Wesleyan University. 

"However earnestly the teachers in literary institutions may endeavor to 
impress upon the minds of the students the necessity of bodily exercise, their 
admonitions wiU generally be unavailing. There appears to me to be no way 
of avoiding the evil, but by a systematic and regular course of exercise, to 
which certain hours shall be appropriated, and to which every student shall be 
required to give his attention." 

Dr. Post, Demonstrator of Anatomy, Coll. of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y. 

Shall we plod through the same process forever ? Shall we trudge 
on in this profitless round of exhortation and remonstrance, doling out 
the same old lamentation, and reading at every step the same stale 
homily upon exercise, which rarely if ever made a practical convert. 
Shall we play the fool any longer, by repeating an experiment in the 
face of ten thousand failures under the same circumstances, and 
when in the very laws of human nature there is "confirmation 
strong" that every future effort will result in failure ? Let us suppose 
a case. 

Suppose all our existing institutions were established solely for 
the education of the body. Suppose each had a complement of 
teachers, full courses of lectures and experiments, merely for promo- 
ting the beauty and strength, symmetry and perfect action of the 
body — all the requisitions leaving utterly out of sight the whole circle 
of science and literature. Suppose three hours of relaxation from 
these exercises are allowed the students daily. Suppose, moreover, 
they are told they have minds, and are eloquently urged to devote 
these three hours each day to mental improvement. But not a single 
facility is furnished for the accomplishment of this object. No appa- 
ratus, lectures or experiments, no libraries, no cabinets, no recita- 
tions, no teachers, no requisitions for study, and no regulations 
designed to afford the least aid or countenance to the student in the 
culture of his mind ; and not only so, but these three hours of leisure 
are divided into four or five portions, and are distributed over the 
day, and so entangled with other arrangements as to make it exceed- 
ingly difficult to employ them in mental cultivation. Thus, instead of 
receiving any encouragement to educate his mind, all the exercises 



78 

of the institution are arranged in such a manner that the student is 
harassed, subjected to great inconvenience in all his efforts to acquire 
knowledge, finds himself unsustained by the example of his teachers, 
who are most zealously engaged in the improvement of their bodies 
alone, public sentiment, is against him, and he becomes disheartened, 
and rather than carry on a contest without auxiliary or ally, he sur- 
renders at discretion, and lounges away his leisure, in conformity 
with the fashion around him. Still, once a quarter, perhaps, he is 
dos'd with a lecture upon the importance of educating his mind, and 
exhorted to provide himself with all the requisite facilities, and set 
about the work in earnest during his leisure hours ! ! What would 
such appeals avail? They would excite unmingled contempt and 
disgust ; and the more eloquently they were urged, and the oftener 
repeated, the more they would be regarded as downright mockery 
and insult. Well might the student exclaim, " What ! will you taunt 
the misery of a starving man, by exhorting him to eat while you deny 
him bread, or will you put him in fetters and handcuffs and then place 
food before him, merely to mock his anguish by tempting his appe- 
tite ? Do you exhort us to store our minds with science, and yet 
deny us the means of its acquisition ? Give us access to libraries and 
cabinets, laboratories and apparatus, experiments and lectures ; fur- 
nish us with teachers, make requisitions for study and recitation, for 
composition, discussion and declamation ; make specific regulations, 
have a system — then we will believe you honest and in earnest. 

" Conduct hath the loudest tongue. The voice 
Is but an instrument on which a man 
May play what tune he pleases. In the deed, 
The unequivocal, authentic deed, 
We find sound argument." 

The appUcation of this supposition to the case before us is manifest. 
Look at our institutions as they are. All not only admit the import- 
ance of exercise, but advise and urge students to take it regularly, and 
in considerable quantities, and yet^have not made a tittle of provision 
for it ; have furnished not a single facility ; have made no arrange- 
ment of studies and recitations, calculated in the least to favor it. 
All their regulations are profoundly silent about health and physical 
improvement ; passing over the body as if beneath their notice, leav- 
ing the whole matter of phj^sical education to the supervision of 
chance and accident, to be regulated by freaks and fantasies, 
under the dictation of ignorance or caprice. Thusour institutions 



79 

practically nullify their own precepts, by withholding every faci- 
lity for reducing them to practice. They render their exhorta- 
tions void, and their remonstrances of none effect, by refusing to fur- 
nish those means, and to adopt that system, without which they must 
of necessity become a dead letter. 

Besides, the arrangement of the hours of study in our public insti- 
tutions is such as is calculated to discourage the student in his 
attempts at exercise. Though there are about four hours of leisure 
allowed to the student each day, yet this time for relaxation is for the 
most part immediately after meals, when the system is indisposed 
to muscular action, and would be injured rather than benefited by it. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to call your attention to the following extract 
of a letter from Professor Hitchcock, of Amherst College, upon the 
point under consideration. Few men of the present age have more 
maturely considered the physical evils resulting from the present 
system of education ; and fewer still have with equal intelligence, 
earnestness and eloquence, urged the necessity of immediate reform. 

"But, after all, is it not a fact, that in most of the colleges of our land, such 
is the arrangement of the literary exercises, that nothing but the most deter- 
mined resolution can enable the student to take sufficient bodily exercise 1 In 
other words, has not the subject of physical culture been left out of the account 
almost entirely, in the anxiety of the founders of these institutions to urge the 
student forward as fast as possible in intellectual culture 1 I believe the insti- 
tution with which I am connected gives as good an opportunity for bodily 
exercise as any coUege in New-England. But I confess I do not see much 
opportunity for exercise. At this season of the year, January, for instance, 
(though I confess this to be the most imfavorable season) the students are 
called at daylight to attend morning prayers, after which they attend a reci- 
tation an hour long. This brings breakfast at eight o'clock. If breakfast be 
dispatched in half an hour, there remains half an hour for exercise before the 
commencement of study hours at nine o'clock. From this time till twelve, 
are study and recitation hours. From twelve to two, the time is devoted to 
dinner and exercise, giving an hour and a half for the latter, but immediately 
after dinner. From two to five are study and recitation hours, when prayers 
and supper succeed. Now it is obvious, that the student can find no time 
during daylight for exercise, unless he take it at the most unfavorable time, 
viz. after meals, especially after dinner. The only chance for exercise at a 
better time, is to rise early and take it before daylight. But who that is 
acquainted with human nature, does not know that very few wiU take such a 
course ? Is it to be wondered at, that with such a system, instructors should 
be called to witness very many painful instances of a failure of health, and the 
utter destruction of many bright and blooming hopes. The records of any 
New -England college would furnish an appalling list of such failures. But 
other causes than want of exercise are assigned, and no doubt other causes 
conspire, though this is a principal one ; and thus instructors and trustees 
look upon such cases as unfortunate, but remediless. If they did not thua 
regard them, I cannot believe that so many excellent men as now have the 



80 

management of colleges would suffer the existing arrangement of literary 
duties in those seminaries to monopolize all the time during the day most 
favorable for exercise. I sincerely believe that hundreds every year suffer 
seriously and permanently in their health and ability to study, and that not a 
few are laid entirely aside, if not in their graves, in consequence of this system, 
I cannot, therefore, but utter my most earnest protest against it." 

7. " If the manual labor system is generally adopted, and institutions 
are established upon that plan, it will operate unfavorably upon existing 
institutions, by drawing away their students." Let us see how this 
hangs together. In the first place, it admits the superiority of the 
manual labor system over the common system, and then makes those 
superior advantages the only ground of attack upon the manual labor 
system, because they w^ill operate as a lure to draw^ away students 
from other institutions. The superiority of the manual labor system 
over the other is singled out as the obnoxious feature, and the effects of 
that manifest superiority assigned as the only reason why the system 
should not be tolerated. 

The objection in plain English is this. The manual labor system is 
in one important respect an improvement upon the common system ; 
hence if that is supported, the common system must go into disuse ; 
therefore of two evils I prefer the greatest — so let the better sys- 
tem be strangled, and the poorer breathe on. Railroads are an 
improvement upon turnpikes ; consequently will be more used — there- 
fore, make no railroads. Navigation by steam is an improvement upon 
the old method of propelling vessels ; of course sloops will have less 
employment — therefore, break boilers and lay up steamboats in dry 
dock. Printing is an improvement upon writing ; hence interferes 
with scriveners — therefore, burn up presses and melt down types. 
The objection, by admitting the superiority of the manual labor sys- 
tem, and making the effects of this superiority the plea for a crusade 
against it, rivals, both in intelligence and magnanimity, the oppo- 
sition of the English operatives against machinery, and their patriotic 
combinations to destroy all within their reach. 

Let us look at the objection in another light. The number of grad- 
uates at all our colleges in the year 1832 was about 680. The addi- 
tion to our population during the same period was more than 400,000 ; 
a proportion of one to six hundred — and does the objector refuse to 
furnish the means of a liberal education except to one individual in six 
hundred of our population ? Is he afraid of enlightening the people ? 
Does he deprecate the universal diffusion of knowledge ? Would he 
bewail it as a calamity, if the means of a thorough education were to 



81 

become the birthright of every American citizen ? Let the objector 
ponder the nature of our government, the practical bearings of our free 
institutions, the spirit of inquiry.wKch they have enkindled, the free 
and fearless discussion of principles to which they invite, and the 
rewards which they proffer to high intelligence ; let him consider the 
influence of universal suffrage, the fierce confliction of sectional 
interests, the vastness of our territory, the accessions to our popula- 
tion by foreign emigration, unparalleled during the past year, and 
having in near prospect an hundred fold increase, and will he then 
decide that only one from every six hundred of our population shall 
be furnished with the means of high intellectual attainment? No; 
he will say as we do ; every existing institution is needed, and 
hundreds more, to save us from shipwreck upon the shoals of popular 
ignorance. 

8. " The system appears impracticahle, inasmuch as some manual 
labor schools have failed." Have failed! In what have they failed? 
In preserving health, and promoting physical strength? In giving 
clearness and vigor to mind? In investing the morals with defensive 
armor ? In rescuing the habits from perversion ? In giving energy, 
courage, independence, and manliness to character? "Oh no ; they 
have succeeded in those respects." Where then has been the failure? 
" Why, the system did not lessen the expense of education so much 
as was expected, and so the trustees gave up the institution." This, 
then, was the failure — the students made less money than was 
expected — this, the "front of its offending," its sin, unpardoned and 
unpardonable. No matter how beneficial the effects of the 
system upon body and mind. No matter though it preserve from 
vice, and establish in virtue ; though (ijii draw out into prominence 
every manlier feature of character, and though its influence upon the 
community be powerfully repubhcan, yet — money, money! — it failed to 
make money. If any who profess friendship to the manual labor 
system suppose that its main object is to make money, well may it cry 
out, " Deliver me from my friends." True, the fact that it diminishes 
the expense of education is a strong argument in its favor ; but every 
intelligent friend of the system knows full well that this is a collateral 
consideration. That man has not yet arrived at the border ground 
of the subject who supposes that manual labor is to be connected 
with study mainly for the sake of its pecuniary advantage. The main 
arguments upon which the manual labor system rests its claims, disa- 
vow all companionship with money. Their flight is infinitely higher ; 
11 



83 

they sweep the world of mind, and morals, and character, and use. 
fulness. They strike chords which will vibrate through eternity, and 
wake echoes which will reverberate forever. 

The paramount object of the manual labor system is to arrest the 
havoc of health, the eclipse of intellect, the wane of influence, the 
perversion of habits, the stagnation of social feeling, the wreck of 
morals, the death of usefulness, and the annihilation of hopes — those 
giant woes which throng in the train of the present system of educa- 
tion, uttering voices of lamentation, and strewing its pathway with ruin. 
The aim of manual labor institutions is to introduce a redeeming 
principle into the system of education, that it may no longer practically 
unfit men for the high trusts of human responsibiUty. But by girding 
up the body, by giving vigor to the intellect, by casting the habits in 
the mould of active energy, by stamping the morals with the impress 
of virtue, and by incasing the character in the steel mail of manhood, 
prepare man for his high destiny, and lead him out to grapple with 
difficulties, to overmaster temptations, to rise elastic from the blow of 
misfortune, to look unstartled on the face of danger, to scale the 
heights of mind, and wave over them the sceptre of its sway — these 
are the objects which the manual labor system sets up on high before 
it. Facts, experience, the history and the philosophy of mind, bear 
witness to the competency of such a system, jTor the production of such 
effects. 

Possessing such legitimate tendencies, and intrinsically adapted to 

produce such results, shall the operations of the manual labor system 

be stigmatized as a failure, unless, in addition to all these results, they 

can pay a certain per cent, in money upon all the filthy lucre invested 

in them? Even if the manual labor student could not earn a single 

cent by his labor, yea more, if he were obliged to pay for the privilege, 

and could procure the means only by the sacrifice of many conveniences 

and comforts, he would be wise to purchase it even at such a price ; and 

with such a man, it would matter little, though dandies should peep 

from their bandboxes, and quiz at him, or fools make him their song. 

That the manual labor system does greatly diminish the expense of 

education, has already been proved. But if it furnished no pecuniary 

advantage, the most prominent features of its distinctive character 

would remain. The grand basis of its claims is immoveable. The 

laws of the body, the principles of the mind, the elements of the cha. 

racter, these form their anchoring ground ; and till earth pass away, 

it will never swing from its moorings. In view of these facts, let 



83 

those talk of failure, whose sole definition ofsiiccess is money making ; 
who are ravished by no music but the jingling of pence ; with whom 
nothing is merit but skill in handling the " muck-rake ;" whose eyes 
are enlightened by nothing but the reflection of coin ; and to whom 
the dimensions of a bank note are the circumference of the universe. 

But further, what were the circumstances attending these alleged fail- 
ures to make money ? Has the objector traced the operation of all the 
causes which combined to produce the result ? Is he quite sure that the 
fault of " failure" is chargeable upon the system ? Can it be accounted 
for upon no other grounds ? Does he claim exemption from the possibi- 
lity of error for those who managed the institutions ? Is he certain that 
the " failure" is not attributable to their inexperience, or inefficiency, 
or imprudence, or want of business tact and habits ? Is he certain that 
it was not owing to unfavorable location, or to a deficiency of funds 
for unembarrassed operation, or to a lack of system, or to misjudge- 
ment in the kind of labor, or to the fact that the students were mere 
boys, perhaps mainly from cities, unused to labor, unfitted foi it by 
previous habits, and totally averse to it ? I ask, is the objector in 
possession of information upon all these points, so specific as to war- 
rant the assertion that none of these causes operated to produce the 
result ? 

Patient investigation, close scrutiny, extensive acquaintance with 
facts, careful analysis of principles, accurate knowledge of the ope- 
ration of causes immediate and remote — such auxiliaries, perchance, 
can be dispensed with ; such employments would be a waste of time, 
since the only requisites for uttering sweeping denunciations against 
any enterprise are strong lungs, and a hearty volition to ply them. 

The logic of the objector is compendious, if not conclusive. Some 
manual labor schools have failed to make money ; ergo, the manual 
labor system in a pecuniary view is a failure. 

Some merchants have failed to make money : ergo, the mercantile 
business is the road to bankruptcy. Some canals are unproductive 
property; ergo, canals are bad economy, and the canal system impo- 
verishes the country. Grant it, that soTue manual labor schools have 
failed to diminish the expense of education. But a large majority of 
those manual labor schools, in which the students have labored three 
hours per day, have diminished the annual expense of education nearly 
one half; and some of them much more. 

But perhaps the objector may still urge, that some who once thought 
favorably of the manual labor system, as furnishing to a considerable 



84 

extent the means of self-support, have tried the experiment, and are 
convinced of the impracticability of the system. 

It is the misfortune of some minds to suppose every enterprise 
impracticable in which they have been unsuccessful. The fact of their 
failure proves impossiUliiy of accomplishment. When their patients 
die, the disease is always incurahle. If such individuals would con- 
sent to admit the possibility that the failure might be owing to some 
other cause than intrinsic defect in the system itself, it would at least 
savor of modesty. 

9. "-The system is not popular loith the teachers and students of 
manual labor schools." I have in my possession testimony upon this 
point which would fill many pages. A few brief extracts are subjoined. 

" The practicability and importance of the system have grown upon my con- 
victions. I know no field of labor in which a man can spend the energies of 
his mortal body and his immortal mind, with higher probability of becoming 
a benefactor of his country and his kind, and a co-worker with God in the uni- 
versal extension of that kingdom which is light, and peace s.nd joy. 

President Junhin, Lafayette College, Pa. 

" Every year has greatly confirmed me in the opinion that our system is 
perfectly practicable, and "that its excellence will lead to its general adoption." 
Professor Caldwell, Maine Wesleyan Manual Labor Seminary. 

"Our convictions of the practicability and excellence of the system are not 
only strengthened, but confirmed, silencing aU doubt." 

President Cossitt, Cumberland College, Ky. 

"The system has been generally admired by the students, and has grown in 
their affections, as they have continued to try it. I have heard several say, 
they could bless the Lord that be had allowed them to be connected with such 
an institution." 

Rev. Mr. Clemson, Principal, Manual Labor ScJiool, Wilmington, Del. 

The following communication was made by the students of the 
Oneida Institute, three years and a half ago, to the trustees of that 
institution : 

"Gentlemen — Believing the results of experiment weightier than theory, 
we beg leave respectfully to lay before your honorable body those convictions 
respecting the plan of our institution, which have been created solely by our 
own experience in its daily details. 1. We are convinced that the general 
plan is practicable. 2. That the amount of labor required does not exceed the 
actual demands of the human system. 3. That this amount of labor does not 
retard the progress of the student, but by preserving and augmenting his phy- 
sical energies, does eventually facilitate it. 4. That the legitimate effect of 
such a system upon body and mind, is calculated to make men hardy, enter- 
prising and independent ; and to wake up within them a spirit perseveringly 
to do, and endure, and dare. 5. Though the experiment at every step of its 



85 

progress has been seriously embarrassed with difficulties, neither few in num. 
ber nor inconsiderable in magnitude, as those know full well who have expe- 
rienced them, yet it has held on its way till the entire practicability of the 
plan stands embodied in actual demonstration. 

■" In conclusion, we deem it a privilege, while tendering this testimony of 
our experience, to enter upon the record our unwavering conviction, that the 
principle which has been settled by this experiment involves in its practical 
developments an immense amount of good to our world ; it is demanded by 
the exigencies of this age of action, when ardor is breathing for higher 
attempt, and energy wakes to mightier accomplishment. 

" All which is respectfully submitted." 

HORACE BUSHNELL, Chairman of lie Committee. 

The following testimony was given a few weeks since by the stu- 
dents of the same institution, all of tohom have become members 
since the date of the preceding communication : 

"The influence of the system on health is decidedly beneficial, as all of us 
can testify who have pursued it for any length of time. We can pursue our 
studies, not only without injury, but with essential advantage. Not only is 
our bodily power increased instead of being diminished on this plan, but the 
powers of the mind are augmented, while moral sensibility is not blunted by 
hours of idleness and dissipation. We suffer no loss of time, as no more is 
spent in labor than is usually spent by students in recreation ; and we are 
taught to improve every hour. Our opinion is that intellectual progress is 
promoted rather than retarded by this system. In its success, we are con- 
vinced, is deeply involved the prosperity of education, and the great work of 
evangelizing the world." 

ASA A. STONE, ) 

HIRAM FOOTE, } Committee. 

ORVILLE C. BROWN, ) 

The following is an extract from a commmiication recently received 
from the students of Cumberland College, Kentucky : 

" We beg leave to state the results of our own experience. Having been 
for a considerable time members of a manual labor institution, we have had 
an exhibition of its principles and efficacy continually before us ; and we are 
convinced that labor, active and diligent labor, for two hours or more, each 
day, is essential to the health of all close, students, and equally necessary for 
Xhe development of the mind." 

In behalf of the students of Cumberland CoUege, 

C. W. RIDGELY, ) 

W. W. FAMBRO, } Committee. 

R. S. WADDILL, ) 

The following communication was recently received from the 
Rev. Dr. Kendrick, professor in the theological institution at Hamil- 
ton, New-York. 

"It was not until last spring that provision was made for daily and system- 
atic exercise. A sash factory was then established, and accommodations 
have been made to employ about sixty in the manufactui-e of window-sash. 



86 

The effects have already been beneficial to health. I have just called 
for the sentiments of the present members of the institution, consisting of 
more than one hundred, on the subject of your inquiry; and the following ia 
the reply : 

* We feel the fullest conviction that every student who neglects systematic 
exercise, is effecting the ruin of his physical and moral powers. Nor is the 
influence of this unpardonable neglect less perceptible or deleterious, as it 
regards his moral feelings. Without it, however pure his motives, or ardent 
his desire to do good, we have but faint hopes of his success. Such habits as 
he would inevitably form, we believe, would ruin all the nobler energies of his 
nature. * * * We think three hours appropriate exercise each day will 
not eventually retard progress in study. * * * We must say, from five 
or six years experience in the institution, we have not learned that any close 
student Mfes ever completed an entire course of study without serious detri- 
ment to health. We hope, however, our present system of exercise will soon 
enable us to present a different statement. In the preservation and improve- 
ment of health, we have found an unspeakable benefit arising from systematic 
exercise. Without it, we deem it impossible for the close student to preserve 
his health.' " 

The following is an extract from the third Report of the Lane 
Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, which has just been received : 

" The Committee have great satisfaction in being able to state, that a strong 
conviction pervades the minds of the young men generally, as well as their 
own, that laborious exercise for three hours per day does not occupy more 
time than is necessary for tlie highest corporeal and mental energy ; that so 
far from retarding literary progress, it greatly promotes it ; that instead of 
finding labor to encroach upon their regular hours of study, they find them- 
selves able, with a vigorous mind to devote from eight to ten hours per day to 
intellectual pursuits; that under the influence of this system, mental lassitude 
is seldom if ever known ; that good health and a good constitution are rarely 
if ever injured ; that constitutions rendered delicate, and prostrated by hard 
study without exercise, have been built up and established ; that this system 
with temperance is a sovereign antidote against dyspepsy and hypochondria, 
with aU their innumerable and indescribable woes ; that it annihilates the fear 
of future toil, self denial, and dependance ; secures to them the practical 
knowledge and benefits of agricultural and mechanical employments ; gives 
them familiar access to, and important influence over that gi-eat class of busi- 
ness men, of which the world is principally composed ; equalizes and extends 
the advantages of education ; and lays deep and broad the foundations of 
republicanism ; promotes the advancement of consistent piety, by connecting 
diligence in business with fervency of spirit, and by giving countenance to the 
exploded maxim, "If any man will not work, neither shall he eat;" and wiU 
bless the church with such increasing numbers of ministers of such spirit and 
physical energy as will fit them to "endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus 
•Christ." 

" The Committee are every day more and more impressed with the importance 
■and practicability of the manual labor system, as the only one by which the 
increasing hundreds and thousands of the pious and talented sons of the church 
can be raised up with the enterprise, and activity, and power of endurance, 
■which are indispensable for the conversion of the world to God." 

Permit me, gentlemen, to add to this testimony the results of my 
own observation and experience. When I accepted your appoint- 



87 

ment a year since, I had been for three years and a half a member 
of a manual labor school. The whole number of my fellow stu- 
dents during that period was about two hundred. I was personally 
acquainted with every individual, and merely " speak what I know," 
and " testify what I have seen," when I state that every student who 
acquired a reputation for sound scholarship during that time, was a 
fosi friend of the manual labor system. The most intelligent, without 
a single exception, were not only thoroughly convinced of the import- 
ance of the system,, but they loved it with all their hearts. They 
counted it a privilege and a delight to give their testimony in its favor, 
and they did it, in good earnest. Their approval of the system rose 
into an intelligent and abiding passion ; and it is no marvel that it 
was so ; for they had within them a permanent, living consciousness 
of its benefits and blessings. They felt it in their bodies, knitting 
their muscles into firmness, compacting their limbs, consolidating 
their framework, and thrilling with fresh life the very marrow of their 
bones. They felt it in their minds, giving tenacity to memory, stability 
to judgment, acuteness to discrimination, multiform analogy to the 
suggestive faculty, and daylight to perception. They felt it in their 
hearts, renovating every susceptibility, and swelling the tide of 
emotion.* 

But there isanother side to the picture. It is true, with a few, a 
very few of the students, the system was unpopular, and so were lan- 
guages and mathematics, philosophy and rhetoric, and every thing 
else in the daily routine, save the hed and the dinner table. Such 
students were snails in the field, drones in the workshop, dumb in debate, 
pigmies in the recitation room, and cyphers at the black board. 

Substantially the same state of things exists in every manual labor 
school which I visited in my recent tour through the west. It was 
the invariable testimony of trustees and teachers, that the talent, the 
scholarship, the manliness, the high promise, of all such institutions, 
were found among the pupils who gave the manual labor system their 
/hearty approval ; whereas, if there were among the students brainless 
coxcombs and dandies, sighing sentimentalists, languishing effemi- 
nates, and other nameless things of equivocal gender ; to prostitute 

* If there are any who are strangers to the indescribable glow which diffuses 
itself through a healthy frame during vigorous exercise — who have never felt 
that all pervading gush of vivid impulses which revivify the body, and electrify the 
mind ; to such I probably speak in an unknown tongue. For an interpretation, 
they are referred to the letter of Professor Green in the Appendix. See Appendix,. 
Note B. 



88 

their lily hands and taper fingers to the vile outrage of manual labo? 
was indeed a sore affliction ! 

3. " The system can never become popular with the community.^'' It 
ought to be popular with the community ; and what ought to be, can be. 
It has already been shown by copious reference to the laws of the 
human constitution, by an appeal to universal fact, and to principles 
in philosophy, changeless in their nature, and which have never been 
gainsayed, that the manual labor system is based upon man's neces- 
sities, befits human circumstances, and is better adapted than any 
other to develope the whole man in symmetrical proportion, and 
qualify him to stamp upon the mind of his generation the abiding 
impress of his own character with every lineament in legible relief. 

To say that a system having such legitimate tendencies cannot be 
made popular with the community is a libel upon public intelligence. 
True, facts must be presented, principles must be discussed, practical 
bearings must be traced out, and results must be embodied before 
the public mind ; and in order that the community may be effectually 
moved, time and toil, perseverance and energy, and self-denial, will of 
course be requisite. Difficulties will doubtless to some extent obstruct 
present progress. Prejudice, self-interest, dread of innovation, imme- 
morial usage and tradition, may postpone success ; but ultimate accpm- 
plishment of the object cannot he i^r evented. 

* To show that the partiality felt by manual labor students for the system does 
not expend itself in words, I will state a few facts. During a vacation in the 
Oneida Institute in the winter of 1830, when very few of the students were 
remaining at the Institution, eleven of the number subscribed two hundred and 
forty dollars to the funds of the institution, no one of them subscribing less than 
$20. This was done entirely of their own accord, without application from any 
quarter. They knew the seminary was in great need of funds for the erection of 
buildings, and they coveted the privilege of testifying their hearty approbation of 
the system by personal sacrifices. These eleven young men immediately set 
themselves about earning the money ; some took jobs at quarrying stone in mid- 
winter, some at cutting wood, one at mason's work, one at threshing grain, one 
taught school, some went on agencies, and all earned their money and paid it. 

A few months since, two members of the same institution, who had enjoyed 
the benefits of the manual labor system for some years, and who wished soon to 
enter upon their professional studies, left the Institute with their packs upon their 
backs, and shaped their course for the Lane Seminary, at Cincinnati, Ohio, the 
nearest theological institution where manual labor was made a requisition, and 
incorporated into the system. They traveled on foot to Olean, in the state of 
New- York, at the head of the Allegany river, hired themselves out to work a 
raft, descended the river three hundred miles to its junction with the Ohio, at 
Pittsburg, and thence five hundred miles farther to Cincinnati. Upon their 
arrival, they received each twenty-two dollars for their services as raftsmen. A 
few months after four other students of the same institution, upon the same 
errand, traveled the same route, in the same way. A number more expect soon 
to start for the same destination, and if rafts are to be found they hope to enjoy 
the privilege of working their passage. 



89 

A conviction that the present system of education is radically 
defective, already pervades the community. The evils resulting from 
a neglect of physical culture begin to be appreciated. The public 
mind is already casting about for some adequate preventive. Wise, 
efficient, and immediate action is beginning to be deemed indispen. 
sable. None feel it more deeply than literary men. Scores and hun- 
dreds of the instructors in our higher seminaries are not only fully 
persuaded of the necessity of some remedy for existing evils, but 
would most cheerfully afford their co-operation to any judicious sys- 
tem which should receive the sanction of pubUc sentiment. The tes- 
timony upon this subject which is embodied in the former part of this 
communication, sets this point at rest. 

The futility of the objection that the " manual labor system can 
never become popular with the community," might be easily shown 
by extracts from a very large number of letters recently received. 
But as this communication has already swelled to a/size far surpassing 
my original design, I will introduce only a few brief extracts, for the 
purpose of showing that public sentiment already sanctions that reform 
in education which the manual labor system proposes. 

"I can say truly, that I do not think any man in the United States ia 
engaged in a business of deeper interest, to the diffusion of knowledge and 
the welfare of the church at a future day, than one who is deeply engaged in 
the business which you are advocating. I wish you the highest success, with 
all my heart, and pray heaven to bless your labors." 

Professor Stuart, Andover Theol. Sem. 

"I esteem your object one of incalculable importance for the preservation of 
our national character and institutions ; for the promotion of genuine repub- 
licanism among all classes of our citizens ; and for training up vigorous and 
intrepid agents to carry into effect the various designs and operations of 
Christian benevolence, in addition to its happy influence upon individual hap- 
piness and usefulness, i'n promoting health of body, energy of mind, physical 
and moral courage, and an ardent and devoted piety." 

Rev. T. H. Gallaudett, Hartford, Conn. 

" I am persuaded that under such a system, many who would be mere drones 
in the ' hive of nature,' would become the pride of their friends, and an 
honor to their country." 

Chancellor Walworth, Albany. 

« I do, from my heart, wish you success in your important efforts ; and I 
cannot doubt; that if we persevere in the cause to which our attention is 
thus turned, future generations will rise up to bless us, and God Almighty 
will approve our labors." 

Rev. Dr. Tyng, Philadelphia, 

12 



90 

"Your committee would remark, that in their judgment, no engine is better 
calculated to perpetuate our republican institutions, push forward the benevo- 
lent enterprises of the day, evangelize the nations, and save a ruined world, 
than a union of manual labor loith study, controlled by prudent regimen." 

Report of the Committee on Education to the General Assembly of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian Church, at Nashville, Tenn. 1832. 

" The ingrafting of manual labor on our present plan of instruction, I con- 
sider one most important step in the road of improvement, in this deeply inte- 
resting subject, and that the promoters of the scheme are conferring a great 
blessing on mankind." 

Dr. James C. Bliss, New-York. 

"I feel persuaded that the kind of literary institutions to which your letter 
refers, if sufficiently extended and judiciously conducted, throughout our 
country, would do much to diffuse among us that knowledge, industry, and 
virtue, which we so much want ; which alone can render a people perma- 
nently free, prosperous and happy; and without which there is the most 
appalling ground to apprehend, that the union of the states will be dissolved, 
anarchy and war succeed to our present peaceful and glorious form of govern- 
ment, and ultimately military despotism swallow up the whole." 

Dr. Caldwell, Professor, Med. Dep. Transylvania University. 

" The object of the present address will be lost, if sober and intelligent 
minds are not furnished with those reasonings and facts which will enable 
them to judge of the practicability and necessity of connecting useftd labor 
wdth study, as an exercise, in literary and sacred seminaries." 

Cornelius' Address. 

"The plan of education devised for this school [Oneida Institute,] meets the 
decided approbation of the committee ; and, if judiciously put in practice, cannot 
fail, in their opinion, of realizing the high expectations of its liberal bene- 
factors. By alternating labor with study, physical and intellectual health and 
vigor are promoted, and habits of application and industry established. 

Report of the Regents of the University of the state of New-York. 

" A school upon this principle would every where receive the warm support 
and encouragement of all the more elevated and better informed portions of 
the community." 

Right Rev, Bishop Smith, of Kentucky. 

" I think it desirable, in a high degree, that all our colleges and academies 
should be furnished with the means of providing for manual labor among their 
pupils, in a regular and systematic manner." 

Professor Goodrich, Yale College. 

♦' Manual labor should be incorporated with the discipline of all our literary 
institutions. No other mode seems to offer equal advantages." 

Professor Mitchell, Medical College, Ohio. 

" In one of our colleges an effort to connect manual labor with academical 
education, though, as I think, hastily undertaken, and managed without a 
sufficient acquaintance with the subject on the part of those immediately 
interested in it, has been, though not extensively, yet decidedly successful ; 
and I have the utmost confidence in its ultimate complete success. I think. 



91 

moreover, that there is evidently a growing interest in the subject among us: 
and It IS my firm conviction that a manual labor school, under the care of 
competent persons, would now succeed in the vicinity of Lexino-ton; to which 
I may add, that if I had a son old enough, he should go into if, if there were 
such a school near me, even if it were dearer, (as it would be really cheaper.') 
than any other mode." j f w 

Robert J. Breckinridge, Esq. Kentucky. 

" I am fully in the belief, that if pubhc opinion could be so far impressed 
with the importance of connecting regular systematic exercise with the edu- 
cation of youth, that seminaries of learning would become generally estab- 
lished upon this principle, it would prove one of the greatest improvements of 
the age." 

Dr. Brown, late Physician of the New-York Hospital. 

" Popular opmion is decidedly favorable to this system of education through- 
out the state of Tennessee, and I may say throughout the western states 
generally." 

Matthew Rhea, Esq. Tennessee. 

" The wealthy and exclusive slave holders in our southern and western 
states contribute more largely to manual labor institutions than any other, and 
are the most anxious their sons should be placed at such institutions." 

Samuel M'Dowell, and George Martin, Esqs. Tennessee. 

«• The manual labor system is a good cause. May God speed it ! Should my 
feeble efforts at any time be thought of service, I beg you to call on me, as on 
one who is ready to engage heart and hand in the noble undertaking." 

Professor Staughton, Ohio Medical College. 

* * * u 'We are a republican nation — the tendency of all things is to 
throw the power into the hands of the people — hence a system of education 
adapted to meet the wants of the whole community is;of inestimable value. 
Such is the system which introduces manual labor as an essential part of every 
course of study. It diminishes the expenses of an education, and thus brings it 
within the reach of the great mass of the community. ' It tends powerfully to 
exterminate habits of idleness, and to render those kinds of labor honorable 
which must of necessity be the employment of the greater part of the commu- 
nity. It also tends to preserve and increase the corporeal and intellectual 
vigor of the nation, and is a safeguard against those temptations to which 
our rapid increase of wealth, and means of luxurious indulgence expose us. 
In short, it has a tendency to elevate the whole community, to prevent the 
needless alienation of the difl'erent orders of society from each other, and to 
secure an elevated national character, based on the full and harmonious deve- 
lopment of all the powers of man, corporeal and social, intellectual and 
moral. " 

Speech of President Beecher, Illinois College. 

" We would not be enthusiastic ; but we cannot help considering the union 
of manual labor with study at our institutions of learning, as one of the means 
which Divine Wisdom has chosen to employ for introducing that happy state 
of the church and of the world, which the voice of inspiration has taught us to 
expect in latter days." 

Trustees of Waterville College. 



92 

» I consider manual labor institutions as forming a new era in the great 
plans of instruction, of unmeasured value to our republic." 

Dr. Slack, late President of the Western University, 

"As lvalue the interests of religion and science, and the happiness of my 
fellow men, I earnestly wish that students might be put upon a regular couse 
of exercise from the first. I rejoice that your association has been formed. 
That you will find numbers ready to second your exertions, and that the 
Supreme Disposer will bestow his blessing, I cannot for a moment doubt." 

Rev, Professor Pond, Bangor Theol. Sem. 

"According to this plan no innovation whatever upon the common course 
is contemplated. The only novelty in the institution is that agricultural or 
mechanical employment is made the duty of every pupil for a few hours each 
day. And this is only a provision for carrying into effect what all acknow- 
ledge to be vitally important in seminaries of learning, namely, that the body 
should be exercised every day, as well as the mind. * * * * 

It is my purpose, as soon as I find such an institution, founded in a convenient 
situation, to send one of my own sons, in preference/o sending him to any 
other school." 

Rev. Dr. Alexander''s Letter to Professor Monteith. 

"We must have men differently educated. We must seek them amidst 
the toils and labors of life. The self-supporting system, he beheved, was the 
only one which could supply the want. This would give men of nerve and 
strength, who could labor on, through the whole of life, healthy and cheerful. 
He desired to express his entire confidence in the institution under present 
notice." 

Speech of Right Rev. Bishop Wllvaine. 

" I wish I had time and means to say more of the interesting and important 
subject which your society has taken in hand. My best wishes are with you, 
and my ardent prayer is, that the cause you plead may advance rapidly. That 
it will advance I have no fears. But that you will find a host of deep rooted 

Prejudices and habits to contest the field, I doubt not. They must yield, 
owever, at length, to the engines of truth which you are able to bring into 
the field, viz : facts and arguments. Let all your soldiers be clad in this 
panoply, and wield only these weapons, and I cannot but hope that some of 
us may live long enough to hear the shoutings of victory begun." 

Professor Hitchcock, Amherst College. 

"In some of our theological seminaries, a counteraction of this evil is 
sought in gardening, and other manual labors. This is well. But it should 
be remembered, that the seeds of disease are sown in the earlier stages of 
education, and that prevention is better than a remedy. The evil should be 
forestalled. Nothing will do this so effectually, as the introducing of manual 
labor, in the incipient stages of classical instruction, into our academies: 
and that species of exercise should be continued through the whole course. 
Every one should insist upon it, that our seminaries of learning shall not 
destroy the body, while they educate the mind — that both parts of the man 
shall receive their due attention." 

Speech of Rev. Mr. Anderson, Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. 

" Not less than three or four hours vigorous exercise is required, to balance 
the exhaustion of six or eight hours hard study. Agricultural and mechani- 
cal employments, combining the means of self-support with healthful exer- 



93 

cise and increased intellectual progress, is doubtless the true manual labor 
system ; and though the experiment is not yet perfect, I am confident the 
world will witness a glorious result, in the mighty host of mighty men, who 
shall be thus self-educated, and act a conspicuous part in the renovation of 
the earth. This system should be commenced in childhood — acted upon in 
the academy, college, and theological seminary, and in aU subsequent periods of 
life ; and the man who has thus worked his way into the ministry, is both the 
missionary and the missionary society — he can build, if needful, both his log 
<:abin and his church, and with his own hands secure his bread until the 
people learn to appreciate his services. This system has more to do with the 
actual saving of ministerial life, and in keeping them back from self-immola- 
tion, than has been understood and acknowledged." 

Dr. Beecher^s Inaugural Address. 

The following testimony from a distinguished civilian in favor of 
the manual labor system, though written with reference to a particular 
manual labor school, will not be out of place in this communication. 

" I cannot forbear remarking to you, that I have read with great pleasure, 
the report of the Oneida Institute of Science and Industry, and highly approve 
of their plan of education. There is no institution within my knowledge, 
which, with the same means, has communicated more intellectual, moral and 
physical instruction than the Oneida Institute. The superior effect of manual 
labor upon the character of the student, over mere idle exercise, is there stri- 
kingly illustrated." 

Seth P. Staples, Esq. New-YorJc. 

Obstacles to Success. 

The progress of the manual labor system has been retarded by the 
operation of a variety of causes. These causes will continue to 
embarrass its operations, greatly impair its efficiency, and consign it 
to ultimate defeat, unless a vigilant forecast interpose a preventive. 
In enumerating the causes which have impeded its progress, I would 
specify, 

1. Misconception of the main design of the system. Some suppose 
its main object is to diminish the expense of education. Consequently, 
if the avails 'of three hours labor a day do not go far towards defray, 
ing the expense of the student, the system is pronounced as " good 
for nothing." The cry of impracticability is raised; "a failure," 
" a failure," runs from mouth to mouth ; goods and chattels, fixtures 
and tools, stock and buildings, are knocked off under the hammer ; 
the premises vacated to moles and bats ; and the community most 
benevolently plied with ghostly warnings to beware of a syren, whose 
song, if heeded, will assuredly lure to ruin. 

It has already been asserted, and is again repeated that the 
paramount design of the manual labor system is not to diminish 
the expense of education. The diminishing of expense is an object, 



94 

and not an inconsiderable one ; but the grand design of the system, 
the object which overshadows every other, is to make the student 
more of a man. It is to enable him to dare and to endure; it is to 
expand his views, to elevate his aims, to ennoble his purposes; to 
multiply his resources, augmenting his power of universal accom- 
plishment, and giving him an onward momentum over every thing 
but impossibility, as he moves from conquering to conquer; and it 
aims to accomplish these objects, by exerting upon the body, the 
mind, the morals, the habits, and the character, those permanent 
influences which have been traced out in detail, in the former part of 
this communication. 

2. Precipitancy. " What is done in a hurry is ill done." He who 
is in such haste to leap, that he can spare no time to look, will probably 
find whenme comes down, that if head and feet change places, the 
novelty of the experiment, though it may gratify curiosity, is slight 
security against fractures, and meagi'e compensation for them. Much 
deliberation, careful inquiry, intelligent anticipation of probable diffi- 
culties, and a wise provision of means to meet them, should be the 
pioneers of every manual labor institution. 

3. Imperfect knowledge of the details of the system. A thorough 
acquaintance with the daily practical details of a well conducted 
manual labor school, is not only desirable, but almost indispensably 
requisite for those who are to direct the operations of such institutions, 
not only in the department of labor, but also in that of instruction. 

4. Misjudgment in the kind of laior. Some manual labor schools 
have furnished only those kinds of mechanical labor which require long 
practice for the acquisition of adequate skill. Hence it is necessary 
for the student to labor some months before realizing much pecuniary 
profit. It should be remembered, that it is not the aim of the manual 
labor system to make students finished mechanics and scientific agri- 
culturalists.* Three hours labor are required of the student, because 



* Though there are as yet no schools in this country, where agriculture and 
the mechanical arts are taught, yet they are manifestly a desideratum. At such 
schools, those who are expecting to engage in those employments for life, might 
spend one half the day in intellectual pursuits, and the other half in prosecuting 
agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic arts, on scientific principles, under the 
direction of competent instructors. In that way the farmers and mechanics of 
the country would not only be greatly elevated in general intelligence, but far 
more thoroughly furnished for their particular departments of labor. 

In the selection of a location for an institution upon this plan, the farm should 
contain, if possible, a variety of soils, from the lightest to the richest alluvial, in 
order that the students may have before them a practical exhibition of the dif. 
ferent modes of cultivation adapted to different soils ; the kind and degree of til- 
lage required by each ; the preparation of composts for furnishing the requisita 
aaanure. The said farm should also possess water privileges for mechanic shops. 



95 

he needs that amount for exercise ; and since it is indispensable that 
such exercise should be taken, it is the dictate of common sense to 
turn it to the best account, and thus lessen, as much as possible, the 
expense of education. Agriculture and gardening would be immedu 
ately profitable. The same may be said of such mechanical employ- 
ments as require the exercise /)f little skill, and can be performed 
without much previous practice, such as the making of packing boxes, 
trunk boxes, flour barrels, brooms, and all those kinds of carpentry, 
cabinet work, &c. which are plain and simple. 

5. Unfavoralle location. Inconveniences of access to a good market 
for their productions, whether occasioned by distance or difficulties 
of conveyance, Avill subtract from pecuniary profit in proportion 
to the degree in which they exist. Besides, the location may be 
such that the expenses of living will necessarily be great. Board, 
washing, fuel, tuition, room rent, and contingencies, will make up 
so large a total, that after the deductions made by labor, education 
will still be expensive. In the^ selection of a site for a manual labor 
school, prudent men will carefully weigh all such considerations. 

6. Inefficiency on the part of those who manage such institutions. To 
be well versed in business ; to possess a practical tact ; to under- 
stand human nature ; to be prompt, active, industrious, persevering, 
efficient, are requisites indispensable for such a situation. 

7. A want of active co-operation on the part of the teachers. The 
prophet Elisha, president of the first manual labor institution on 
record, accompanied his students when they went to Jordan to "take 
thence every man a beam, and make a place where they might dwell." 
His manual-Iahorism was not mere theory. We find him swinging 
the axe : " And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither." " Exam- 
ple is better than precept." To urge eloquently the importance of 
exercise ; to theorize admirably upon the subject ; to give the manual 
labor system unqualified commendation, costs little, and can be done 
"without an if;" but to reduce all this to practice sadly " alters the 
case:" Why, what would become of my — dignity! ! ! 

So long as the students in manual labor schools are unsustained by 
the example of their teachers, so long such schools will lack an 
important element of efficiency. 

8. Leaving labor to he regulated by the caprice of the student, rather 
than making it a requisition.* Those manual labor schools where the 



* "The greatest danger to be apprehended, is from a partial introduction of the 
system. " Total abstinence" is the life of the temperance cause ; so closed doors 
against the idle is the living principle of this system." Speech of Rev. J. Frost. 



06 

individual is permitted to labor or lounge as he pleases, create unde« 
sirable and invidious distinctions among the students. Besides, by- 
refusing to make exercise the subject of specific requisition, and thus 
incorporate it as a part of the system of education, they proclaim an 
indifference to its importance, and practically contradict their own 
assertions of its paramount necessity.* 

9. Promiscuous admission of students. To admit every applicant^ 
and thus form a motley assemblage, made up of every variety of age, 
habits, and character, is the height of folly. Some manual labor 
schools have been filled up mainly with half grown boys, principally 
from cities ; never accustomed to work ; ignorant of all the modes of 
labor, and esteeming it drudgery ; lacking utterly that hardihood and 
those industrious habits which country boys usually possess ; and yet 
they expect, forsooth, that their labor will go far to defray the expense 
(Of education ! The history of such schools is from first to lasst a 
commentary upon the evils of a promiscuous admission of students, 
where the lessening of expense is an object aimed at. Let manual 
labor schools be established for city-boys and youth : thousands might 
be saved from ruin by their influence. But let not parents expect 

* The following points have been settled beyond controversy: 1. Students 
need exercise daily. 2. They need a certain amount of exercise. 3. This amount 
of exercise will not be taken, unless it is a fart of the system of education, and is 
made a requisition. When the students are required to exercise daily, as well as 
to study, to recite, declaim, write compositions, debate, &c. then, (if the neces- 
sary facilities are furnished) will the requisite exercise be regularly taken, hut 
never till then. Why, then, do the trustees of our literary institutions shrink 
from making the requisition? Perhaps they reply, "It would be unpopular." 
Be it so. Is public sentiment always right? Is it befitting that our institutions 
of learning should lay hold of its skirt, and with sycophantic cringe creep timidly 
in its rear, wherever it moves ? What ! shall education float passively in the 
wake of popular feeling, the creature of its caprice, and the slave of its fluctu- 
ations ? No, its place is on the deck, with its eye on the pole star, and its strong 
hand on the helm. Education has indeed fallen on evil times, if public senti- 
ment must be made the test of expediency, and the standard of duty. I ask 
again, why will not our institutions make daily exercise a requisition ? Bodily 
exercise for some hours each day was a requisition in the system of Pythagoras, 
In Persia, in Rome, in the Grecian states, in a word, in every well regulated 
ancient government, their systems of education made daily bodily exercise a 
requisition. This system prevailed universally, for ages, and finally went into 
disuse, only when monasteries were established, and literary men drew on their 
monkish cowls, divorced themselves from practical life, from usefulness, from 
realities ; turned book worms, crawled into cloisters, wrapped themselves in 
theories and hypotheses, wove around their bodies the web of sluggishness and 
torpor, and much like other worms, stagnated, dozed, and died in them. Such 
was the worthy parentage of that system of education which refuses to provide 
for the exercise of the body, and to make that exercise a requisition, as well as 
mental exercise. Fit progeny ! legitimately begotten ! its home the dark ages, 
its birth place a convent, its cradle superstition, authority its nurse, aristocracy 
its advocate, and effeminacy its apologist, while disease stood sponsor, and sloth 
drawled out its lullaby. 



97 

that the labor of such lads will materially curtail their expenses, until 
they shall have acquired business habits and attained more maturity. 

10. Inadequate means for unembarrassed operation. Almost every 
manual labor school in the country has been shorn of its efficiency by 
want of funds. To such an extent has this cause operated in 
obstructing the progress of the system by obstacles almost insur- 
mountable, that the students and teachers of some of these institu- 
tions, have submitted to protracted privations and suffering, which no 
consideration would have induced them to undergo, but the deep, 
seated conviction that tbe manual labor system was connected with 
the highest interests of the world, and that they were called, in the 
providence of God, to work out the problem. This fact, with refer- 
ence to at least one institution, needs not the corroboration of second 
"hand testimony, nor will it, until the last lesson of experience perishes 
from memory. 

Even now, some of the most important manual labor institutions in 
the country, which have accomplished vastly more for the system 
than all other causes combined, and upon whose future results the 
efficiency of the general system greatly depends, are pining under dis- 
pensations of charity so disproportionate to their necessities as to be 
little less than actual mockery.* 

It is the part of humanity rather to leave a starving man to perish 
without sustenance, than mete it out so meagerly as to prolong the 
pangs of dissolution, breaking the cords of life one by one, and sacri- 
ficing the victim over the slow fires of gradual martyrdom. 

If the establishment of a manual labor school is contemplated in 
any part of the country, the way should be prepared by an explicit 
statement of the grounds upon which the system rests its claims. The 
whole subject should be thoroughly canvassed, and objections and 
difficulties fairly weighed. Let a deliberate investigation of princi- 
ples be cordially invited, the whole ground debated inch by inch, 
and the results of experiment drawn out in detail ; and if there be not, 
in the practical bearings as well as in the principles of the system — 
in its facts as well as its philosophy — enough of appeal to reason and 
to conscience, to patriotism, to philanthropy, and religion, then let it 

* At the present moment many manual labor schooJs are suffering beyond 
measure. They greatly need workshops, and other buildings, implements of 
labor, land, stock, apparatus, libraries, &c. hut they have no funds. The pecu- 
niary necessities of some institutions, and the excessive embarrassments occa- 
sioned by them, are so well known to me that I cannot refrain from dwelling on 
this point in bitterness of soul. 

13 



98 

die hopeless of resurrection. If after full investigation it is decided 
to establish such an institution, then let funds be procured sufficient 
for untrammeled operations. If the labor to be performed be agricul- 
ture and gardening, let the land be purchased, convenient buildings 
provided, stock, and farming utensils furnished. If it be mechanical, 
let shops be put up, tools and all necessary materials furnished. Let 
all these be donations, not stock, invested with the expectation that an 
annual per centum is to be expressed out of it. When funds are 
given to other institutions, the gift is not accompanied with the narrow 
proviso that a certain yearly per centage in money shall be rendered as 
an eqvivalent. 

During the last year a venerable literary institution, eminently 
honorable to the country, whose crowded halls bear testimony to the 
just and general appreciation of its rare advantages, has received 
donations to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, and another 
of more recent date, but full of healthful promise, to the amount of 
fifty thousand dollars. 

The interest accruing from these investments the high minded 
donors pay over to the human family in the circulating medium of 
cultivated intellect; a currency which never stagnates, is undiminished 
by discounts, encounters no protests, has a self-perpetuating charter, 
bids defiance to vetos, and makes universal mind the safety vault of 
its golden deposites. This is as it should be, and bespeaks an 
interest in the subject of education which does not evaporate in 
breath. Let the same expanded benevolence freely dispense its 
favors to other departments of the sarne great interest. 

Let those manual labor schools which are sinking under the embar- 
rassment of inadequate endowments, and are consequently so fettered 
in their operations as to be incapable of efficient action, receive 
enlargement and be relieved of those burdens under which someyof 
them have long tottered with trembling and in tears. I use no hyperbole. 

Permit me, gentlemen, in conclusion, to make a single suggestion. 
It is my deliberate conviction that the injudicious multiplication of 
manual labor schools will jeopard the system far more than all other 
causes combined. True, to make the most of a good thing, is the 
dictate of common sense, and is obvious duty ; but there is a strong 
tendency in the community to take it for granted that the only way 
to accomplish this object is by rapid and indefinite multiplication. 

This is a blemish in our national character which already subjects 
us to deserved ridicule, at home and abroad. Signal success in any 



99 

new enterprise has become hardly less than a misfortune. Though 
it may seem an anomaly, it is nevertheless a fact, that prosperity and 
calamity are fast becoming synonymes, inasmuch as the one often 
induces to a course of action so misjudged and inconsiderate that it 
terminates in the other. To secure, upon a permanent basis, the insti- 
tutions already in existence, to furnish them with ample means for 
enlarged and efficient operation, would be the speediest and most effectual 
method by which to render the blessings of the system co-extensive with 
the world. 

Those who look at the system intelligently, who feel its importance, 
and long to make the whole family of man partakers of its benefits, 
will surely make this ihcfrst object. 

One deep respiration gives more vigor than a thousand gaspings. 
Arm ten full grown men rather than a myriad of Lilliputians. 

If men would cease to take counsel of self-preference and pride, 
and no longer regard their own horizon as the boundary of the uni- 
verse ; if they would seek the general good, uninfluenced by local 
prepossessions, the manual labor system would be exempt from peril, 
and its operations rescued from the disheartening embarrassments 
which now paralyze its energies. How long shall private considera- 
tions outweigh public utility, and the weal of a world dwindle to 
nothing under the shade of individual interest? Shall men forever be 
doomed to narrow views, stifled by petty jealousies, hemmed in by 
sectional prejudice, and pent up among local rivalries ? Will the 
shriveled heart of selfishness never dilate into benevolence, and its 
pulsations beat for the good of the whole 1 

When men relinquish the chase of day-dreams and pursue realities, 
toil will be repose, duty delight, self-denial and sufl^ering "joy 
unspeakable and full of glory." Then, in the exertion of instrumen. 
tality, and in the bestowment of means, one desire will swell the heart, 
and one petition tremble on the lips : " How, shall I make such a dis- 
tribution as will most effectually elevate man to the blej;sedness of his 
duties, and to the glory of his destiny, and transform this ruined world 
into an abode of" righteousness and peace, and joy in theHoly Ghost?" 

Gentlemen of the Committee — The experience of a year has con- 
vinced me that the agency to which I was called by your appoint- 
ment, furnishes a field of usefulness wide as human interests. Nothing 
could induce me to leave it but the most settled conviction of duty. 
My heart cleaves to the manual labor system ; and, though I can no 



100 



longer publicly ^dvocBite it as the agent of your society, I hope soon 
to plead its cause in the humbler sphere of personal example, while 
pursuing my professional studies, in a rising institution at the west, 
in which manual labor is a daily REansiTioN. 

I now resign into your hands the commission under which I have 
acted. May He whose aid we invoked together at the commence, 
ment of our undertaking, and whose presence has sustained us m its 
toils and its perils, deign to bless abundantly our mutual labors. 
I am, gentlemen. 

Respectfully and aifectionately. 

Your obedient servant, 

THEODORE D. WELD. 

New-York, January 10, 1832. 



APPENDIX. 



Thk preceding Report contains a mass of testimony upon 
the importance of exercise. A variety of letters have been recently 
received from distinguished physicians which exhibit those laws of the 
constitution which render exercise necessary ; also, the physiological 
effects produced by exercise, and the modes in which it acts upon the 
body and the mind. 

Intelligent minds will not be satisfied with a mere knowledge of the 
naked fact, that muscular exercise benefits the system, and inactivity 
injures it. How are these results brought about 1 What is the pro- 
cess ? What are -the successions of cause and effect ? These are 
questions which will be propounded by all minds whose aliment is 
first principles, and whose element is the relations of things.* 

*Why is not the science of physiology taught in all our colleges? Astro- 
nomy, natural philosophy, chimistry, mineralogy, geology, and botany, are not 
neglected. The students are required to become familiar with the properties of 
the air they breathe, the water they drink, the fire that warms them, and the 
dust they tread on. They must know something, forsooth, about " spots on the 
sun," eclipses, " northern lights," meteoric stones, the " milky way," the great 
bear, the little bear, comets' tails, Saturn's ring, and Jupiter's moons ; they must 
know all about the variations of the needle, the tides, the trade winds, the Gulf 
Stream, the phenomena of earthquakes, thunder, volcanic eruptions, why a stone 
falls down rather than up, and what flattened the poles. All this is very well. 
But what do our graduates generally know of the structure of their bodies, the 
functions of the different organs, and their laws of relation ? Just about as much 
as the Peripatetics did of ideas, when they supposed them little filmy things which 
floated off from objects, and somehow wormed their way through the senses and 
finally stuck fast on the pineal gland of the brain, much like barnacles. Modern 
education conducts the student round the universe ; bids him scale the heights 
of nature, and drop his fathom line among the deep soundings of her abyss, com- 
passing the vast, and analyzing the minute ; and yet never conducts him over 
the boundary of that world of living wonders, which constitutes him man, and 
is at once the abode of his mind, the instrument of its action, and the subject of 
its sway. Why, I ask, shall every thing else be studied, while the human frame 
is passed over as a noteless, forgotten thing — that masterpiece of divine 
mechanism, pronounced by its author "wonderfially made" and "curiously 
wrought,*^, a temple fitted up by God and gloriously garnished for the residence 
of an immortal inhabitant bearing his own image, and a candidate for a "build, 
ing of God, eternal in the heavens." 

Thousands of students are now prosecuting a course of study in our higher 
seminaries, which occupies from six to nine years. Why are not a few months 
set apart for studying the architecture of this "earthly house of our tabernacle," 
its simplicity, its beauty, its harmony, its grandeur, its majestic perfection ? 



\ 



J 



102 

[A] 

Extract of a letter from Dr. John Bell, of Philadelphia, Editor of the Journal of 

Health. 

Bf gjj Xn replying to the questions proposed by the Executive Committee of 

the " Society for Promoting Manual Labor in liiterary Institutions," and to your 
polite letter accompanying them, I shall not, I fear, be able to lay claim to any 
great novelty of fact or illustration. I could not, however, be silent on so impor- 
tant a subject as that on which you request information, without a manifest dere- 
liction of duty, since I hold it to be the duty of every man of letters to contribute 
all in his power to avert the evils of bodily infirmity and mental disorder, from 
•which he must himself have suffered, by neglect in his education of a suitable 
alternation of physical with moral and intellectual exercise and culture. 

Your first question, as to "the cause of dyspepsy and other diseases so frequent 
among students," may, it seems to me, be briefly answered. There is not so 
much a unit cause, as causes. Of these, some are common to students with 
other men, such as excess, in eating too much at a time, and at unseasonable 
hours, drinking stimulating liquors, the use of tobacco in various forms, late 
hours', indulgence in passion, whether of a very exciting or depressing kind. 
Peculiar force is given to these causes by the sedentary habits, or rather the 
habits of bodily indolence of students and literary men in general. * * * * 
The immediate operation of this indolence, and of its accompaniments just stated, 
is to impede the freedom of respiration, and thus to prevent that interchange of 
the blood in the lungs by which this fluid acquires its florid color, and becomes 
fitted to stimulate and nourish all the organs of the body, including of course 
those for the performance of the intellectual and moral faculties of the brain. 
With impeded respiration is associated irregular and enfeebled circulation of the 
blood, and as a consequence among others, is deficient transpiration, or discharge 
of vapour from the lungs, and sweat,-vaporous or fluid, from the skin. This latter 
becomes more liable to eruptions of various kinds, either from the cause above 
mentioned, or from responding to the irritation of an enfeebled stomach. But 
not only does disturbed digestion interfere with the free action of the skin and 
lungs and brain, but it is also a more probable result of the disorders of these 
organs from other causes. The weakened/condition of the skin, accompanied 
often by a morbid sensibility of this part, renders the body more liable to atmos- 
pherical vicissitudes ; and hence colds, catarrhs, and their consequences, and 
rheumatism ; and hence also inability of the stomach to digest food, which under 
an opposite state of the skin would not have been productive of any inconvenience. 
* * * Long and intense study, or painful emotions, by over exciting at first, 
and debilitating afterwards the brain, operate, by means of the connexion between 
this latter and the stomach, to prevent healthy and regular digestion, 

Pt is prope^ here, in farther illustration of the subject, to refer to that law of the 
animal economy by which a part or organ being stimulated, or irritated, or called 
into action, receives for the time being a larger quantity of blood into its texture. 
Hence the advantages and disadvantages of the exercise of a part, according as 
it is moderate and intermittent, or excessive, and with slight interruption. We 
see this daily in the fulness and strength of body and limbs in those who are 
engaged in labor, and at the same time receive sufficient aliment. If particular 
limbs are called more frequently into active exertion than others, they acquire 
greater size and strength than these latter. Thus the muscles constituting the 
calf and bulk of the leg will be more developed in persons who walk much and 
climb, whilst the arms will be largest in those who pull, push, or hammer in 
their daily labor. Even one arm, if it be more used than the other, as in the case 
of the blacksmith, will acquire a proportionately larger size. But let the labor 
be excessive, and the muscles are irritated and inflamed, and the body and limbs 
are unfitted for exertion of any kind. This disability may be only temporary ,_ as 
after a long march, or violent gymnastic effort, or it may be fixed, and pains 
resembling rheumatism or common inflammation result, where the exertion has 
been protracted, or renewed without an interval of adequate repose. 



103 

nln^p' ^T-^^'" '^n ^^°^ 'l'^^^-^ l^^ '^'^ Of external or the locomotive organs 
alone. It is equally operative in the internal organs, and notably in the bfain 
During the period of study and mental exertion |eneral]y, the brain is the pS 
excited; blood flows to it with greater rapidityf and i/'krger quant ty than 
before 1 here is increase of heat of the part, often a sense of f'ulness in it Pro 
longed thought, or indulgence in powerful mental emotions, beyond due limits 
fatigues the brain; and If rest be denied, inflames it; makes it a permanent 
fTr^r. ^f7,f blood; and the individual is tormented with continued wake, 
fulness, spectra illusions, hallucinations, delirium, and even confirmed madness. 
.nJf-^T *^t.f'^°"°t °f blood in tiie body, the greater, other things being 
equal, is the quantity directed to a part during its period of activity when in exer 
c,se ; so that a full habit of body, abundant alimentation. promptLd easy dlges.' 
tion, and the consequent large additions made to the circulating blood bv new 
chyle, will only serve to increase still more the unpleasant feeling in the brain of 
^dlTT . J"! greatly and excessively exercised the organ in the processes 
alreadj adverted to. To him his love of study and love of eating without ade. 
quate muscular exercise, are equally dangerous propensities, the full gratification 
ot which throws him open to apoplexy; or, escaping this, he is liable to suffer 
trom asthma, diseases of the heart, or excessive obesity and oppression of all the 

However desirable and even necessary it may be for an organ, such as the 
Dram, wJiich has been j^ong excited, and made the centre of an afflux of blood, 
to rest, this alone will not be sufficient to allow of its recovering- its healthy tone, 
certainly not of its,resuming its customary office. 

Havmg now replied to the first and third questions proposed by you on behalf 
ot the H^xecutive Committee, viz. the causes of dyspepsy and other diseases of stu. 
dents, and the consequent pathological condition of their system, I come event, 
ually to the second question, whether regular systematic exercise, agricultural 
or mechanical, has a tendency to counteract these evils ? To this I would reply, 
decidedly m the affirmative. Full health and pleasurable feelings can only be 
enjoved on the condition that every organ of the living body shall be duly exer- 
cised. Students and persons generally engaged in literary and scientific pur- 
suits, and in fact all those whose minds are long and intently occupied, and who 
lead a sedentary life, do not conform with this condition, and they suffer accord. 

It follows from the view already taken of the causes of their diseases, and of 
the morbid states of their organs, that relief and cure for this numerous class 
must be obtained, not only by adequate rest, at regular intervals, of their too 
excited braijis, but by calling other parts into action, and thus equalizing the dis. 
tribution of blood through the body, in place of allowing it to accumulate unduly 
in a particular part. This object is admirably accomplished by agricultural and 
mechanical employment, by which the limbs and muscular system in general are 
fully exercised, and have an increased quantity of blood determined fnto them, to 
the relief of the brain and the other internal organs of the chest and abdomen. 
The vital fluid or blood is also sent with greater rapidity through the lungs, 
which, more freely expanded, allow of a larger access of air, and produce more 
complete and rapid conversion of this fluid, before venous and dark, into arterial 
and red. It is now fitted for giving increased vitality and fiinctional power to 
all parts of the animal economy, through which it circulates at this time with 
more rapidity. It also circulates more freely and largely under the skin, impart, 
ing to this latter a more healthy color, and furnishing abundantly the materials 
for perspiration. From the skin, as well as from the lungs, there escape, when 
the body is actively exercised, certain matters, the retention of which iu the sys. 
tem would prove eminently injurious. The stomach and the entire digestive 
apparatus participate in the common benefit, derived by all parts of the body from 
this active and harmonious discharge of its functions ; and in a peculiar degree 
is the mind cheered and refreshed by the relief given to its material instrument, 
the brain, as well as by impressions of a more varied kind made on the senses, 
and especially that of sight. 



104 



Extract of a letter from Dr. Caldwell, Professor in the Medical Department of 
Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. 

The brain beinff a part of the human system, partakes of all its affections, 
whether of health or disease, of weal or of wo. That being the case, whatever 
tends to the welfare of the system generally, by forming good blood, and giving 
it free and active circulation, cannot fail to benefit the brain in all its qualities. 
It necessarily raises its tone, and confers on it a higher fitness for both vigorous 
intellection and healthy emotion. The brain, like other parts of the body, is a 
vital organic tissue. Like them, therefore, it is nourished and vivified by arterial 
blood And, other things being equal, the more perfect the blood is, it contri- 
butes the more to the perfection of the brain. This truth is as firmly established 
as any other in physiology. Innumerable facts can be adduced m proof of it. 
But it has been already observed, and I trust made manifest, that the blood is 
improved in its qualities, and its circulation invigorated by exercise. The brain, 
therefore, is also improved by it. Whatever adds to the vitality and vigor of that 
part of the system, as an organic tissue, increases the native strength ot the 
intellectual faculties, and benefits in an equal degree the susceptibility ot emo- 
tion. Why should it not ? I may rather ask, how can it be otherwise ? In our 
present capacity, compounded as we are, of mind and body, intellection and 
emotion belong to the brain, as their seat and instrument, and depend as essen. 
tiallv on its organic action, as the movement of a limb does on muscular action. 
This also is susceptible of proof. Improvement in the health and organic condi- 
tion of the brain, therefore, increases its fitness for its peculiar functions, as cer- 
tainlv and on the same grounds, as an improved condition of the muscles gives 
them an increased fitness for the functions they perform. This is common sense 
in physiology, and is sustained by evidence which nothing can shake, lo 
improve every mental faculty, then, nothing else is requisite than an improve, 
ment in the organic qualities of the brain. The mind is always prepared to do 

the 1*6 st • 

But let us lay aside phrenology and physiology, and take as our guide, experi- 
ence and observation. No one will question their authority ; and they testify to 
the same effect. Who that has ever been a student, has not felt the salutary 
influence of exercise on his mind ? Exhausted by intellectual toil, in some new 
or intricate college exercise, and his faculties rendered so feeble and obtuse, that 
every thirnr has become obscure to him, and all seems confusion, the votary ot 
the mases abandons his secluded study for a few hours of exercise in the open 
air At the end of this term he returns to his toil, but it is toil no longer. _ 1 he 
task which of late seemed impracticable to him, is now accomplished without 
difficulty ; and dullness and depression have given place to alacrity. What col. 
leffe youth, I say, has not experienced something like this in himself, and obser- 
ved the same in his fellow students ? Not one who has been ardent and perse- 
verinff in pursuit of knowledge, and accurate in his attention to things around 
him And what is the cause of such a striking improvement thus produced in 
the clearnesss and energy of the intellectual faeulties? Exercise, united to relax, 
ation ; the transferring of action from the brain to tlie muscles. No other reason 
can be assi<rned ; nor is any other necessary. That which is rendered explains 
the phenomenon. Besides ; who, again, has not felt in himself, and observed in 
others that when the body suffers in its functions from disease, the mind suffers 
in its powers ; and that when corporeal health is most perfect, the susceptibility 
of emotion is in the best condition, and intellectual energy at its highest pitch ? 
So true is the quaint remark of Sterne, that " the soul and body are like a jerkm 
and a ierkin's lining ; if you rumple the one you rumple the other ;" to which 
may be added, in the same strain, that if you smooth the one, you smooth the 
other. It is not true, as the rhymer has said, that 

«' The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed. 
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made." 

When the " cottage" is " battered," and " chinks" are made in it, the tenant 
within is sure to suffer. 



105 

. °^¥' things being equal, whatever strengthens the body invigorates the mind, 
m all Its faculties and modes of action. So indispensable is exercise to the sound, 
ness and vigor of every form of organised and vital matter, that inaction debili. 
tates the brain itself, and subjects it to disease, in common with other parts of the 
body. Hence intellectual exercise of a suitable kind, and carried to a proper 
extent, contributes no less certainly to the health of the body, through the sound 
condition of the brain, than corporeal exercise does to the health and vigor of the 
intellect. Such is the interchange of good offices between the mind and the 
body. 

* * * , * * Intense and long continued mental labor exhausts 
and weakens the brain, precisely as excessive corporeal labor weakens the 
muscles. But the brain being the ruling organ of the system, and a main-spring 
of action to all the other parts of it, whatever exhausts its strength, necessarily 
debilitates the whole body. This, however, is not all. The sedentary habits of 
the studious and literary, check, to a certain extent, the circulation of the 
blood, and somewhat diminish the frequency of respiration. The blood, 
therefore, passing less frequently through the lungs, and receiving less of the 
influence of those organs, than it would do, did it circulate more rapidly and 
fully, and did they act more frequently and vigorously — the blood, I say, thus 
defectively acted on by the lungs, is imperfectly arterialized. But it is arterial 
blood alone that nourishes and vivifies every portion of the body, the brain itself 
not excepted. If, however, it be not well arterialised, it is so far unfit for its impor- 
tant offices. It cannot sustain, in healthy and vigorous action, either the brain 
or any other organ of the body. Hence, they all languish, and from their debili- 
tated condition, pass into disease. 



Extract of a letter from Dr. Cooke, Professor in the Medical Department of Tran- 
sylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. 

There are certain fluids separated from the general mass of the blood, in the 
liver, the stomach, &c. which arc necessary to healthy digestion, and conse- 
quently to a sound state of the body. There must, therefore, be a due and regu- 
lar supply of blood sent to those parts, for the purpose of separation of those 
fluids from it ; that is, the circulation of the blood must be duly kept up. 

The chief instrument by which this is effected is the heart; which sends the 
blood into the arteries ; from which it passes into the veins, and by them ia 
returned to the heart ; whereupon, a certain degree of vigor of action is necessary 
in the heart, to keep up the circulation, and a due supply of blood for the separa- 
tion of the fluids spoken of, the gastric juice in the stomach, the bile in the 
liver, &c. 

If the action of the heart be deficient, less blood will be sent into the arteries, 
and more, of course, left to accumulate in the veins which pour it into the heart. 

The consequence of the former will be a deficiency in the supply of blood 
Buitable for the purpose ; and the consequence of the latter, by the delay of the 
blood in the veins and the obstruction thence arising, will be an interference 
with the performance of the functions of separation, or secretion, of the fluids 
spoken of, in the liver, stomach, &c. because the veins of the liver pour their 
blood into the great vein which supplies the heart, so near to this organ, that the 
least delay and accumulation of blood in the latter vein must immediately extend 
to the former, and must also soon extend to the veins of the stomach, because these 
pass their blood immediately into those of the liver. 

From these two causes, deficiency of the supply of suitable blood, and accu- 
mulation of blood in the veins, and its delay there, interfering with the func 
tions of the parts — viz. the separation of the fluids necessary for digestion — flows 
a deficiency of those fluids, and consequently defective digestion. And both of 
these causes flowing from sluggish circulation of the blood, whatever tends to 

14 



106 

invigorate this strikes at the root of the evil; because the blood, in quantity and 
quality, is thereby supplied, and its accumulation in the veins, which arises from 
the inactivity of the heart prevented. 

Exercise is the ordinary, natural means of effecting this object — ^the due circu- 
lation of the blood. It is obvious to the most superficial observer, that muscular 
action, in wh^ch exercise consists, quickens the circulation of the blood. The 
effect of muscular action in impelling this fluid onward to the heart, is illustrated 
in the common expedient of grasping a stick in bleeding in the arm, to make 
the blood flow. Every exertion of the muscles of the arm, in this case, makes 
the blood fly out at the orifice with increased velocity; and, but for the ligature 
round the arm, it would move toward the heart. 

The neglect of exercise, therefore, is followed by diminished activity of the 
circulation, and all the bad consequences flowing from it. These are not only 
indigestion, arising in the manner above explained, from deficient secretion from 
the general mass of blood, of the fluids necessary to digestion, but costiveness, 
from deficiency of bile in particular, which is in some cases very manifest from 
the pale color of the evacuations from the bowels ; and in some constitutions the 
same, (viz. costiveness,) alternating with occasional looseness of the bowels; also, 
dulness of the intellect, from the fulness of the vessels of the head ; which always 
is a necessary consequence of much accumulation of blood in the great veins about 
the heart, as will be evident to any one who examines a good preparation, or 
even good large plates of the parts. He will find that the veins of the head are 
very large, very numerous, and have a very near communication with the great 
vein, called the vena cava descendens, which enters into the heart. This dullness 
of intellect is often troublesome to students, and prevents their applying their 
minds with effect when they feel no pain or uneasiness, and are at a loss to con- 
ceive why they are so dull that they cannot comprehend a book which is at 
other times plain enough to them ; and as to composing, it is out of the question 

their ideas will not flow. In this situation I have often been, and have been 

taught by experience that if I set out and walk rapidly, until my whole system 
is in a glow, I can sit down and do more in two hours, than, without it, I could 
have done in six, or even in a whole day. 

This dullness runs gradually and imperceptibly, (if you continue to sit, and 
etrive to read,) into a little uneasiness of the head, a ^ense of tightness across 
the forehead, and, eventually, into pain in the head, and vertiginous affection, 
(sometimes accompanied by dim or indistinct vision, with dark specks floating 
before the eyes,) and occasionally resting on the letter when reading. These, of 
course, appear in those only who have long been indulging in the gratification of 
intense study of a favorite subject. Every one of them I have myself experienced, 
and have tried every way to obviate the effects, to avoid taking the time neces- 
sary for exercise. * ***** *** 

" The cause, therefore, of Dyspepey, and other diseases so frequent among 
students," is undoubtedly deficient circulation of the blood, arising from the want 
of exercise, which is the ordinary and natural means of sustaining its vigorout 
and healthy circulation. 



Extract of a letter from Dr. Stephen Brown, late physician of the New.York 

Hospital. 

" What are the obvious physiological changes in the system arising from the 
want of due exercise ?" 

1, The circulation of the blood is necessarily rendered more sluggish. The 
consequence is, the capillary system of vessels, in which all the secretions are 
elaborated, performs its functions imperfectly; some of the consequences of 
which are the following : 

1. The liver does not secrete the usual quantity of bile, neither is it of so 
healthy a quality. 2. Thus the bowels become torpid, as the natural stimulant 
which excites the peristaltic motion is in some degree withdrawn. 3. The score- 



107 

tioti by the kidneys, and also that by the skin, are diminished, and consequently 
principles which ought to be cast out of the system by these emunctories, as 
excrementitious and hurtful, are in a greater or less degree retained in the blood. 
And all the secretions under these circumstances are altered in quantity and in 
quality. And not only this, but the blood itself is of a less pure quality ; and this 
condition of the blood must vary from a healthy state, just in proportion to the 
extent of the operation of the causes producing it. 

This ill condition of the blood, flowing through the delicate tissues, consti- 
tuting the brain and nervous system, doubtless is the cause of those changes in 
the body which every observing person must have noticed after having been iu 
a state of bodily inactivity for a considerable time ; such as dullness and inac- 
tivity of mind, disinclination, and perhaps inability to apply the mind vigorously 
to any subject, yawning and stretching the voluntary muscles, gloominess of 
thought, low spirits, sometimes headache, &c. 

A timely resort to active exercise of the muscles dissipates at once all these 
unpleasant symptoms, and the mind soon becomes clear, vigorous, and cheerful. 
But a continued course of bodily inactivity, as it increases the cause, so it neces- 
sarily must increase the effects above mentioned; and we see produced a train of 
evil consequences, 

1. Of the nervous system ; gloominess and clouded state of the mind, general 
irritability of the nerves, hypochondriasis, a want of resolution and firmness of 
purpose in the mind, indecision, indisposition to mental exercise, diminished 
ambition, despondency, and sometimes melancholy, and even madness itself. 

2. The natural functions are of course imperfectly performed ; and we see 
exhibited dyspepsy, with all its train of attending symptoms, as slow bowels, 
flatulence, pains in the stomach and bowels, imperfect respiration, weakness of 
muscle, sallowness and unhealthy state of the skin, fcEtid breath, &.c. &c. 

And if the cause of these evils be not timely removed, by a resort to the 
necessary exercise of the muscles, the organs within the system concerned in 
the performance of the natural functions of the system, will receive so fatal a 
shock, that no remedies will ever remove the effects. And the diseases following 
will vary according to the temperament, idiosyncrasy, or peculiar susceptibilities 
of the individual. Some may linger with a diseased liver, others with an 
impaired condition of the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels ; others 
may be early cut off with consumption of the lungs ; others rendered useless by 
various incurable nervous diseases — as hypocondriasis, melancholy, &.c. 

3. Those evils are more certainly and speedily produced when the mind is 
brought to act daily and vigorously, unaccompanied by a somewhat correspondent 
action of the muscles. 



Extract of a letter from Dr. James C. Finley, of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the 
Editors of the Western Medical Review. 

A very cursory investigation of the effects of exercise will show that inactivity 
ia not only a very powerful direct cause of disease, but that by cooperating with 
the other causes of disease to which students are exposed, it has a more general 
and pi rnicious influence than any other, perhaps than all the rest. 

The vascular system, by which we understand the system of vessels containing 
the fluids of the body, is generally divided into four distinct departments ; viz. 
the arteries, the veins, a set of vessels intermediate between the two, called capil- 
lary vessels, by which the various functions of secretion, exhalation, nutrition, 
and the generation of animal heat, are performed ; and the absorbents, a set of ves- 
sels ramifying minutely upon the internal surface of the intestines and through- 
out the whole texture of the body, to take up such parts of the food as are adapted 
to keep up the supply of blood, and of such parts of the body, as, in the changes 
which are perpetually going on in the animal economy, have become separated 
from the general organization, but are still suitable to be reapplied to the nourish- 
ment of the body. These vessels unite in a large trunk, and enter one of the 



108 

large veins a short distance from the heart. The heart is placed nearly in the 
centre of the system, for the purpose of circulating the blood. It receives the 
blood from the veins, and forces it into the arteries, by a mode of action supposed 
by some to be analogous to that of the forcing pump. From the arteries it passes 
through the capillary vessels to the veins, and is again returned to another cham- 
ber of the heart, to be sent through the lungs by a set of vessels which ramify 
minutely on the surface of the air vessels of the lungs, and thus expose it to the 
action of the external air, by which it is divested of the impurities it has acquired 
in circulating through the body, and which render it unfit for the support of ani- 
mal life. These vessels again unite into large veins, and convey the blood thus 
purified to the heart, to be circulated through the body. The precise influence 
of the atmospheric air upon the blood is not very well understood. We simply 
know that as the blood proceeds from the lungs, and as it appears in the arteries 
before circulating through the capillary vessels, it is of a bright scarlet color, and 
contains no carbon ; and as it returns to the heart, after circulating through the 
system, it is loaded with carbon, and its color is nearly black. * * * » 

The heart is a double organ, one side circulating black blood, the other red; 
two sets of arteries arise from it, one conveying black blood to the lungs, the 
other red blood to the body ; and two sets of veins, the one returning the black 
blood from the body, the other the red from the lungs. These vessels differ very 
materially in their structure. The arteries receive the blood immediately from 
the heart, and their structure is dense and elastic, to enable them to resist the shock 
communicated by the violence of the action. The arterial circulation is carried 
on entirely by the action of the heart. The capillary circulation is partly carried 
on by the action of the heart, and partly by an independent action of the vessels 
of that system. The position of the veins places them in some degree beyond 
the reach of the action of the heart, and hence their circulation is more languid, 
and their calibre is consequently much larger. As they have no independent 
action of their own to compensate for the diminished influence of the heart, the 
following provision is met with. In their course through the limbs, they are pro- 
vided with numerous valves, which prevent the blood from flowing backward 
towards the extremities ; and when their cavities are compressed by the pressure 
of the muscles in the motion of the limbs, its curi'ent is accelerated toward the 
heart. The influence of exercise will thus be distinctly understood. By the 
swelling of the muscles in active motion of the limbs, the current of the blood 
towards the heart is accelerated ; this organ contracts with increased energy and 
quickness, to throw off the load; the blood is circulated more frequently through 
the lungs, and consequently is more perfectly oxygenized ; a more abundant 
supply of pure arterial blood is thrown into the capillary system, so that the differ, 
ent functions of absorption, secretion, exhalation, and generation of animal 
heat, go on more rapidly ; at the same time the powers of digestion are improved ; 
and thus, by this constant waste and supply, that constant renovation of the sys- 
tem is kept up, on which much of its healthful condition depends. The distri- 
bution of the blood also is equalized ; in other words, it is prevented from accu- 
mulating in the veins, and is distributed in greater abundance through the system. 
We see also the consequence of inactivity. The blood accumulates in the veins, 
producing visceral obstructions and depression of spirits ; it is imperfectly oxygen- 
ized ; and consequently the muscles are languid and debilitated ; the functions of 
the different organs are imperfectly performed ; the animal heat is diminished, and 
the system rendered sensible to atmospheric changes ; and lastly, there is a lia. 
bility to those forms of disease which arise from obstructed perspiration. In 
addition to these circumstances, it is well known that the body, when debarred 
from its regular exercise, becomes irritable, and, to use a familiar expression, 
nervous, with a desire for unnatural stimuli; and that this condition extends its 
influence to the mind, rendering it peevish, fretful, impulsive, and unfit foj: close 
application to study." « » » 



109 

Extraetfrom a communication, written at the request of the late Mr. Cornelius, by 
Dr. Mussey, Professor in the Medical Institution, at Hanover, N. H. pub' 
lished in the Quarterly Register of the A. E. Society, 1829, 

A certain degree of energy in the circulation of the blood is necessary to high 
health. This energy should be well balanced, and it should exist in all the 
organs. If the action of one part be high, and that of another be low, the bal. 
ance of health is destroyed, and disorder is the consequence. By exercise, this 
balance is in a measure preserved, and the required vigor of the circula. 
tion is maintained. If the circulation in the voluntary muscles, and in the 
organs of digestion and secretion, be allowed to languish for want of exer. 
cise, their power of performing their appropriate offices becomes enfeebled, 
and hence an almost nameless variety of symptoms, indicating impaired 
health, may follow. If the brain be stimulated to undue action by intel. 
lectual operations, carried on with too great effort, or too long continued 
while those organs which are concerned in furnishing a supply of healthy blood 
to every part of the whole animal machine, are left to a feeble or sluggish action, 
it is obvious that their functions must be but imperfectly performed ; and if the 
actions of the secreting organs, those which separate various materials from the 
blood, exerting upon that blood an agency important perhaps to the preservation 
of its purity, become, by any means, greatly enfeebled, it is not difficult to per- 
ceive that disease may follow as a consequence ; indeed, it is rather difficult to 
conceive why it should not oftener be manifest under the fluctuations of action 
to which the various parts of the system are exposed ; and the marvel, is not 
that there is so much disease, but that there is not 7nore. 



The following letter from Dr. Ives contains his views in detail upon a variety of 
points which have been discussed in the preceding Report. As it was not 
received in season to be distributed under the appropriate heads as they came 
under consideration, it is inserted here entire. 

Dear Sir — To your first inquiry, " Is regular exercise important to the health 
of the student," there can be but one reply. The fact is so obvious that you 
need not the testimony of physicians to prove that a large proportion of all those 
who deserve the name of student are greatly enfeebled in their constitutions, 
(many are doubtless brought prematurely to the grave,) by neglecting healthful 
bodily exercise. I say healthful exercise, because I know the views entertained 
by many students on this subject are exceedingly erroneous. It is too often 
thought that one or two hours violent muscular action, occasionally, that is, 
once a week, or perhaps oftener, will compensate for the neglect of daily, mode, 
rate, but persevering bodily exercise. As well may a man supply the system 
with a suitable quantity of nourishment by eating enormously but once or twice 
a week; or prepare it for a week's watching, by sleeping forty-eight hours at a 
time ; as well expect to nourish a plant by an occasional deluge, as to invio-orate 
the body by unfrequent and violent exertions. All other things equal, h'e will 
enjoy the most perfect health of body and vigor of mind who daily gives to both 
a due proportion of steady employment. 

But by what system the young men in our colleges and academies can be 
brought to do this, is a question not easily answered. In the first place the pupils 
who are most studious, and who most need relaxation of mind, and activity of 
body, have almost uniformly an aversion to them. 

Fathers too often send their sons to college because they have but feeble 
bodily health, or because they manifest a precocity of intellect. Frequently, 
both these causes exist in the same youth, and by being bred students, they are 
actually cut off from the only course of regimen from which they might hope to 
improve their constitution. But there is another and greater difficulty. Man 
has naturally a repugnance to bodily exercise, or, in more significant language, 
he is lazy. He may be stimulated to labor by avarice ; he may be impelled by 



no 

ambition ; he may be goaded by want ; but the love of work for its own sakd, 
is as foreign to the feelings of the generality of mankind, (I had almost said,) a» 
the love of pain. He who made man knew his nature perfectly, when he 
imposed on him the curse of earning his bread in the sweat of his face ; and the 
history of many men's lives is a succession of hopes disappointed, of misfortunes 
endured, and of diseases suffered, in attempts to evade a law most incongenial to 
our dispositions, yet by a most merciful dispensation, indispensable to our well- 
being. Every year of my professional life tends to confirm this opinion. I have 
long been accustomed to prescribe manual labor to invalids of sedentary habits ; 
and in a large city there can of course be no great variety of employments. I 
have most commonly advised them to cut, saw, or split wood, and have often 
urged it as indispensable to their recovery ; but I have seldom or never known a 
man to use his axe or his saw enough to pay for them. Men may be persuaded 
to practice self-denial for the benefit of health ; they may be induced to live upon 
a scanty or unpalatable diet ; and there are certain species of exercise that they 
will practice, for a while, such as riding on horseback, playing at nine-pins, or 
swinging dumb-bells ; but if there is no alternative they will sooner die than 
work, especially if the disease be of a chronic character, and the evil day appears 
to them to be remote or perhaps uncertain. As I have already, remarked, most 
men may be induced to make a temporary effort in almost any employment, 
when they are assured that it will be beneficial to their health, as they may be 
persuaded to swallow a nauseous dose of medicine. When labor is recommended 
they will exert themselves jvith great violence, in spite of the doctor, for two or 
three hours, till their feeble and relaxed muscles become exhausted and after- 
wards sore and painful. The invalid now avails himself of this fact to prove that 
" work does not agree with him." 

Now, if the object of manual labor schools be to give corporeal and mental 
strength to the pupils — if it be to provide means whereby every scholar shall be 
employed daily, from two to three hours, in uniform bodily exercise, it is an 
object which cannot be too highly commended, and there can scarcely be a 
doubt of its being attainable. Such a plan would tend to prolong the lives and 
increase the usefulness of many of the most valuable men in the country; for, as 
I have before remarked, it is only the youth of superior intellectual and literary 
worth that suffer for want of such exercise. But whether this system can ever 
be rendered important in an economical or pecuniary point of view, is to me 
doubtful. 

Some useful hints, touching the influence of labor upon health and morals, 
may be derived from the operations of the House of Refuge for juvenile delin- 
quents in this city. There are from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and 
seventy-five boys kept in that institution. They labor eight hours a day, and 
study four hours. During the first four years after the institution was estab- 
lished, there was but one death in the house, and that by unintentional suicide. 
A more remarkable exemption from fatal disease probably is not known. The 
boys generally improve in health after they come into the house ; owing, no doubt, 
to the uniformity and regularity of their living ; and independent of the discipline 
to which they are subjected, I am confident their employment has a salutary 
effect upon their morals. Their improvement in the elementary branches of 
English education is not far inferior to that of scholars of the same age in com. 
mon schools. Those who are quite ignorant before they enter the house learn to 
read, write, and cypher very well, in two or three years. Reverse the hours of 
their employment so as to let them study eight hours and labor but four, and 
their time could not be better appropriated, in order to secure to them the high- 
est bodily health and intellectual culture. 

I regret that I have not time to speak of the superior moral influence which 
manual labor has upon the pupil when compared with gymnastics and games of 
amusement. 

The human mind is fond of the excitement produced by games of hazard. 
A man will not only rejoice in victory when he wins a wager, and exult in his 
good luck when he draws a prize in a lottery, but he actually receives the money 
with a greater zest than if he had obtained it by the labor of his hands, or by 
laudable traffic. Almost every recreative game has a tendency to excite and 



Ill 



increase this propensity ; and I doubt not that a spirit of gamblin? is often ori- 
ginated thus innocently, which is ultimately productive of ruin. But he who is 
employed in manual labor learns the worth of money, the worth of time, and 
the worth of relaxation from his toils. Men seldom dissipate improperly their 
own honest earnings. r r j 

There is another view of this subject too important to be disregarded in esti. 
mating the influence of manual labor upon the health and morals of the literary 
man. 1o relieve the lassitude, or exhaustion of nervous energy, consequent upon 
intense mental abstraction, the student has almost always a morbid desire for 
stimulants, and too often he seeks relief from tobacco, opium, or strong drink. 
These invariably aggravate the evil they are designed to mitigate, and indulgence 
increases desire, till the miserable man falls a victim to what he regarded as a 
remedy. . ^ 

Now, the only proper cure for the intolerable uneasiness which is brought on 
by mental application, is, relaxation of mind, and active bodily exercise. 

I regret that want of time compels me to close this subject .so abruptly. 
I am. Sir, 

Very respectfully, 

New.York, March 10, 1833. A. W. IVES. 



[B] 
The following letters have been recently received from the gentle, 
men whose signatures they bear. They are mostly the records of 
personal experience, and the results of observation, under circum- 
stances which should give to their testimony peculiar weight. 

Letter from Rev. B. Green, Professor of Sacred Literature in the Western 

Reserve College, Ohio. 

While a member of college my constitution received a rude shock. I do not 
propose in this paper to attempt to develope and illustrate the causes to which 
this effect was owing. Excessive, ceaseless application to the labors I was devo- 
ted to, may, in a single breath, be given as the general cause. 

During my residence as a theological student at Andover, I engaged in the 
work of instruction, in Phillip's Academy. My task here demanded anxious, 
unceasing, exhausting exertions during eight hours each day. In addition to 
this labor, I undertook to push forward my theological studies. I gave myself 
no recreation. I studied until a late hour at night, and forced myself to leave 
my bed at an early hour in the morning. I always rose oppressed with fatigue, 
which I worked off by vigorous exercise at the wood-pile. I passed from my 
books and my desk, " on the run," to the saw and the axe. Whether in exer- 
cise or in study, I felt continually hurried. Every nerve was strained. I did 
not pause to inquire whether I was well or sick — sinking or rising. At length, 
I noticed a strange appearance in the atmosphere, between my eyes and my 
book, The air seemed to tremble. I was alarmed ; and as the ominous appear- 
ance increased, I threw down my books and fled to Boston, to a distinguished 
surgeon there, for advice and assistance. I assured him that I had no pain in 
my eyes ; and, what I afterwards found to be a sad mistake, that my general 
health was good. He prescribed, without much inquiry, a repletion, leeches, Mis. 
ters, and the blue pill. Haifa score of leeches filled themselves at my temples; 
more than a dozen blisters were drawn about my neck and ears ; and of blue 
pills, I know not how many I swallowed. My books were taken from me. Under 
this treatment, it was not long before I was embarrassed and alarmed with a new 
appearance floating before my eyes, dark spots of various forms, some of them 
fantastical enough. At length I gave up the blistering process, threw away my 



113 

pill.box, and resolved to use such methods as might subserve my health generally, 
in the hope that when my nerves, which I found were in a disordered condition, 
became orderly and strong, my eyes would be better. 

Oppressed with the anxieties and fatigues which an agency for the Board of 
Foreign Missions occasioned, I " run down" to the point of spitting blood. 
Miserable enough — I now abandoned all efforts at public speaking ; bade adieu to 
my books, which I had enjoyed some broken communion with, through the eyes 
of a friend, and gave up the labor of continuous, close thinking. A skilful phy. 
sician whom I consulted, and who carefully and patiently investigated my case, 
pronounced me within reach of consumption, or gloomy dyspepsy. The Board 
of Missions set me free from my engagements with them ; and my friends 
regarded me as probably near the end of my race. I had one thing in the midst 
of my ailments which comforted me. My stomach wds faithful to the task 
allotted to it. I had, for weeks, been prevented from " taking much food," on 
account of the constant loathing I had for it. ' This was my condition for a long 
time. But if I committed any thing to my stomach, it was promptly and happily 
disposed of. My powers of digestion seemed effectually to resist the invasion of 
disease. 

At length I went into an unoccupied shop with my book in my hand. I 
opened my book and laid it upon a bench. I then wrought at a latj|e until I 
became warm with the effort. I turned from the lathe to my book, and read, 
perhaps, six or seven lines; then again to the lathe; thence to my book. At 
length, under the immediate impulse of muscular excitement, I became able to 
read a minute ; then, after a while, two minutes. While pursuing this course I 
hegan to attempt, (with what anxiety!) some part of the services of a pulpit of 
a sabbath. I trembled as I made the experiment. How often have I not thought 
that the taste of fresh blood was in my mouth 1 How oflen, in dreams, wa» 
I now delighted with the recovered power of reading my books — and now terri. 
fied at the sight of blood, flowing from wounded lungs ! 

I went to Brandon, in Vermont, and undertook to occupy the pulpit which I 
found vacant there. This was a great undertaking. I went into a study, and, 
governed by my watch, in a standing posture, studied just twenty minutes. This 
was done after a long and vigorous exercise at the wood-pile in the morning. 
Twenty minutes gone — O how soon — I went immediately to the wood-pile, and 
8wun£r the axe just fifteen minutes. Warm with muscular excitement, I hastened 
eagerly to my desk, and gave twenty minutes again to study. At the end of this 
term, I was exhausted and helpless. Now, again, the axe came to my relief, 
which I plied fifteen minutes. Thus I spent the time from, perhaps, 9 o'clock 
A. M. till 12. I was by this time spent — thrown upon my back. My dinner 
helped me. After, perhaps, two hours, spent partly in lounging, immediately 
after eating; and then again with the axe, I pursued the same course, as in the 
morning, till the close of the day found myself " gradually gaining strength ;" 
till at length I was able to add five minutes to each term of study, and after a 
long time five minutes in addition. 

Both in study and in exercise, from the time just referred to, to the present 
moment, I have constantly maintained a practical regard to system of effort. I 
have been enabled to add, from time to time, a few minutes to my hours of study. 
When I found myself able by ever wakeful care, and skilful management, to devote 
three hours in a day to study, I exulted as one alive from the dead. Over-task, 
ing myself, however, on one day always subtracted from the resources of the 
next, whenever, as I generally did while resident in Maine, I preached thrice on 
the Sabbath, I was obliged to devote a large part of Monday to vigorous exer- 
cise. My nerves, often, at such times, felt as if torn and rent by a tempest. 
Nothing restored them to peace but thorough muscular toil, long continued. 
The axe has always been my favorite instrument. Were I, as I am not, a poet, 
I would celebrate its virtues in song. 

My habits of study and exercise at present may be thus described : An hour 
and a half vigorous exercise in the morning; from nine to twelve I can study 
two hours and a half; I need to see the saw and axe during this time twice ; and 
to continue with them fifteen minutes at a visit; from twelve to fifteen minates 
past one, I get about forty-five minutes exercise, when I can, without much 



113 

embarrassment, hear a recitation of forty-five minutes ; I then devote two hours 
continuously to exercise, when I can hear another recitation of forty-five or fifty 
minutes ; from this time to seven in the evening, I give up to cheerful engage, 
ments, to domestic duties and domestic cares, easy of performance, and exhila- 
rating in their influence. At seven I enter the study again, and can labor till 
about nine without much embarrassment or fatigue ; then I need and seek my 
pillow as soon as possible. 

A few miscellaneous, general facts, gathered from my experience, may not bo 
uninteresting : 

1. A system of effort, adjusted to my strength and circumstances, has been 
of great service to mo. My ability to accomplish any thing has, under God, 
depended greatly on a strict and conscientious adherence to it. 

2. Only vigorous exercise has answered my necessities. If I cheat my mus- 
cles of the play they demand, ray mind is sure, as their advocate, promptly to enter 
a complaint. And a hearing must be given, and full reparation made, before I 
can enjoy any peace. 

3. I must have exercise suited to my taste. I was forced to abandon "jump- 
ing the rope," &c. when a college student, from a deep conviction that such 
exercise did me no good. 

4. A standing posture, while engaged in study, with a frequent walk around 
the room, especially when arranging thought, I have found manifestly useful to 
me. I arrange the trains of thought which I employ in public speaking, gener- 
ally while walking back and forth m my chamber. 

5. If I allow myself to engage in discussions on any subject, which, during 
the day, may incidentally "turn up," I find my ability to push forward my stu- 
dies sensibly diminished. A careless waste of feeling always hurts me. 

6. The healthful tendencies of exercise, have, in my case, been greatly quick- 
ened, and carried forward more rapidly and certainly to their natural results, by 
the application of friction and water to the surface of my body. When I leave 
my pillow in the morning, I subject myself immediately to friction. I use com. 
monly a coarse woolen cloth; a stocking is very convenient, applying it with all 
my might to my breast, sides, back, and to the trunk of my body generally. Then 
I ppaly water, cold or warm, " as the notion takes me," to my body from head to 
foot. The moisture left upon me I wipe off with a very coarse linen towel, the 
coarser the better. This again I so apply as to produce the natural effects of 
thorough friction. Just as I retire to rest at night, I apply friction again, and 
cold water to my face and mouth. If I have " a hard day's work to do," espe- 
cially in public speaking, I call in friction and sometimes cold water to my aid, 
in the middle of the day, or when the exigencies of the case may seem to require. 
The same means I have found greatly useful in the night, if rest was disturbed 
by a sense of fatigue, or by dull pains lingering about me. 

7. The strictest regard to cleanliness throughout has a very happy bearing 
upon my health. Whatever is admitted to the surface of my body must be clean. 
Flannels and linen must be frequently changed ; the more frequently, the better. 

8. I keep both ears open to the voice of nature. I have heard her cry, till the 
voice became a shriek, " To the wood-pile .' To the wood-pile .' To the wood-pile, 
NOW ! " And when I have seized the saw or axe, a thrill of pleasure has seemed 
to run through every vein, and touch every nerve. What a luxury ! When I 
grow fatigued, or lose my interest in my exercise, I retire. When of a morning 
I have plunged my face in the water, I have felt the inward promptings of this 
kind monitor, bidding me bless God for the free use of cold water. How often 
have I seemed to feel the toUch of an invisible hand, setting me free from the 
lassitude and fatigue, which was crippling and oppressing me ! 

9. I scarcely need say how important in all respects I have found the convic- 
tion of being in the path of duty, a clear conscience, and the influences of the 
blessed Spirit. 

B. GREEN. 

Wkstern Reserve College, October, 1832, 



114 

Extract of a letter from the Rev. John Frost, Whitesboro, N. F, 

« * * * * »* * * 

My own painful experience and observation have made an impression on my mind 
in reference to this subject [the importance of regular exercise for students] too 
deep ever to effaced. My father is a farmer, and I was accustomed to agricul- 
tural pursuits until the age of eighteen, when I entered upon a course of study 
preparatory to my profession. I soon began to experience the injurious influenca 
of study without sufficient bodily exercise. Indigestion, constipation of bowels, 
headache, depression of spirits, indistinct vision, clouded intellect, defective 
memory, and general debility, followed in rapid succession. I sought medical 
aid in depletion pills, &c. Relief was only temporary. Exercise was recom- 
mended, and as faithfully performed as by most students. But no provision 
being made, the only practicable mode was walking. This, not in itself suffi- 
cient, sometimes neglected, and generally uninteresting, having no object but 
health, failed to give the desired relief. Thus I struggled along under bodily 
infirmities through my collegiate and theological studies, and entered upon my 
profession with my physical strength greatly diminished, and mental energy in a 
degree prostrated. The active duties of my profession removed partially the evils. 
But I still feel the injury, and shall till the day of my death. * * * 

In looking back, and calling to mind my fellow students and others, I discover 
a marked difference among those who were attentive to systematic exercise, and 
those who were not, but who were equally diligent in study. While at Andover, 
Mr. Judson, missionary in India, was one year a room mate. He was a close 
student while there, and in college. He was the most regular in his exercise of 
any student I ever knew. Hq walked from six to eight miles daily. This exer- 
cise was taken morning and evening. While his fellow laborers in the mission, 
ary field have fallen one after another, and he still survives, the thought has often 
occurred to my mind, that under God, the preservation of his useful life may be 
owing to his habits of systematic exercise. 

I have long been persuaded that the highest mental cultivation, instead of being 
detrimental, is favorable to health and long life, when accompanied with temper- 
ance and a sufficient amount of regular and appropriate bodily exercise, t 
******* 

We want working men in multitudes in the new settlements of our extended 
country, and for heathen lands, "laborers" in the Lord's "harvest" — "good 

t This remark of Mr. Frost, though unsustained by the popular notion, is, no 
doubt, in strict accordance with philosophy and fact. Various letters from phy- 
sicians and others, recently received, contain the same sentiment. I subjoin a 
few extracts. 

*' The mind will bear any amount of affliction provided so much daily exercise 
of the muscles of the body be observed as to keep up a healthy state of the 
secretions." Dr. Brown, late Physician of the New-York Hospital. 

" The God of nature has designed the body for action ; and all efforts to coun- 
teract this design, end of course in disappointment, sooner or later. The same 
God has designed that men should cultivate their minds; and I never can 
believe that this is deleterious in itself; it is so only when we neglect what he 
has bidden us to observe, i. e. daily discipline and effort to preserve health. Stu- 
dents want vacations, journeys, remission from employment, &c. &c. — and this 
at a great expense of time and money. Why ? Because they will not be faith- 
ful, every day, to watch over their health, and to use all the requisite means for 
its preservation. Why should the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, the phy- 
sician, the lawyer, support a never ceasing round of employment, and the student 
not ? Is there any curse laid by heaven upon study ? No ; it is inaction — lazi- 
ness — that makes all the mischief, and occasions all the expense. This is my 
full persuasion from thirty years experience, and somewhat extensive observation." 

Professor Stuart, Andover Theol. Sem. 

" The « mens sana in corpore sano,' is an acquisition that every student should 
strive to attain ; and, sir, it is attainable. There is not one student in ten that 



115 

soldiers" in the armies of Israel, " w/io can endure hardness" — trained heroes, 
who have wisdom to plan, courage to attempt, and power to execute mighty 
achievements in demolishing the empire of sin. Said the lamented Evarts, in 
my last interview with him at Boston, 1827, when conversing on the great sub- 
ject of missions, which lay so near his heart : " We can get money, and we can 
get missionaries ; but what we want for the triumphant prosecution of this work, 
is, men of firm constitution, who can endure hardship, and men of self-denial, 
whose whole souls are absorbed in the business of converting the world." \ 

A system of education which aims at perfecting the whole man, physical, intel. 
lectua], and moral, is that alone which promises to attain this object. And my 
desire and prayer is, that the society in whose behalf you are employed, may be 
an efficient and honored instrument in accomplishing an object so desirable, and 
that many yet unborn may arise and call it blessed. 

Yours, fraternally, J. FROST. 



Extract of a letter from the Rev, John Todd, Northampton, Mass. 

* * * " I will give you my own history and experience. In fitting 
for college I had but little time. Pressed with active duties and responsibilities 

cannot, by proper measures, give to his body as healthful, and manly, and vigor- 
ous a tone, as can be desired ; and, that too, without injuring his mental activity, 
or circumscribing, in the slightest degree, the extent or variety of his know- 
ledge. I would ask, is the pale-faced student less culpable, than that wicked 
servant, who took his talent and hid it in a napkin?" Professor Staughton, 
Medical College, Ohio, 

« * * " Nay, many seem to court feebleness of the muscular system, 
and a cadaverous countenance, as the common and indispensable index of appli- 
cation to study. And yet it has been well said that he who thus loses health and 
life, sickens and dies " as a fool dieth." President Fiske, Wesleyan University, 

" Exercise having a direct tendency to sustain a healthy circulation, to pro- 
mote the secretions, and continue in healthy action the functions of digestion 
and nutrition, would have a powerful influence in removing the morbid effects of 
study, and being aided, during the regular period of exercise, by a suspension of 
study, could scarcely fail to secure to the student, as complete an exemption 
from disease, as he could have in any other condition, ' other things being 
equal.' " Dr. Picket, Huntsville, Alabama, 

JDr. Garrit P. Judd, a missionary and physician at the Sandwich Islands, in 
a letter to a friend in this country, dated Honolulu, November 10, 1828, makes 
the following remarks : "A missionary ought to have peculiar attainments. He 
ought to be a man of finished education. When in the field, he will have no 
leisure to repair the defects of an education. He must have a store of know- 
ledge, from which he may draw never failing supplies. He is often called to 
preach, without the opportunity of previous preparation : without activity of 
mind, he can do little good. I have been forcibly struck, also, with the necessity 
of his being possessed of strength of body. What can a missionary do, when in 
♦ perils oft,' if he has not bodily strength to sustain the most laborious exercises ? 
He must be inured to toil, as well as accustomed to think. He must be prepared 
to meet a burning sun, chilling rain, or icy winter, as well as knotty questions 
and hard sentences. He must not only withstand a change of climate, but must 
add to that, much manual labor, which will not unfrequently expose his health. 
Of the little company who have left American shores, in the cause of foreign 
missions, how many have laid their bones on the field, or returned home to 
recruit their health ? Much must be ascribed to a want of a constitution inured 
to toil. From whence shall men be furnished, who shall be fitted for the ardu- 
ous work ? We want lion-like men, giant hearted, who can undertake great things, 
and under God can execute them ; who can bear all things, and endure all things, 
for the kingdom of Christ^s sake," 



116 

most of my studying was done in tiie night. I passed into college with high 
hopes ; for although I had studied improperly and foolishly in fitting, yet the 
exercise which of necessity T had taken kept my health good. I supposed it 
would be so of course, in future. But, poorly fitted, and as ambitious as any 
man need be, who feels that he has nothing but his character, and even that to 
make, I pursued the same course, excepting tqtally neglecting exercise. The 
result was, that just as I had recovered from the disadvantage of being poorly 
fitted my health began to fail ; and just at the point at which anxiety to do well 
was the greatest, I was seized with a cough, bleeding at the lungs, &c. and was 
forced to flee from books. A long journey to the north, and a whole winter at 
the south, were necessary to save life. After this, by a diet excessively rigid, 
I completed ray college course. Sometimes I laid the blame on the climate, 
unjustly ; the climate is good enough. Sometimes it was imputed to hard study, 
unjustly ; the studies were none too hard. The great secret, and the only secret, 
was, I did not exercise. Had I adopted a rigid system of daily exercise, I am 
satisfied that ray college life would have been a very different thing from what it 
was. I should have enjoyed it more, done vastly more to discipline the mind, 
and store it with knowledge, and all this at two thirds the expense. I can 
hardly look back upon those four years without tears ; and there is a bitterness 
in their rememhrance that will follow ine to the grave. My professional studies 
were pursued at Andover — a climate vastly more rigid than at New Haven. 
Here I began with a different course. / sawed my own wood, and walked regu- 
larly at least eight miles every day. With but one exception, my health was 
good ; study a delight ; and life had charms to which I had hitherto been an 
entire stranger. I studied, comparatively, few hours daily, after deducting 
lectures, exercise, &c. but / never saio the time when, in a given period, I could 
accomplish so much, by at least one half. I was wholly ignorant ut the time, 
what was the gi'eat secret — the great wheel that kept the whole machinery so 
completely in order, and in motion. I have mentioned walking, for the better 
tystem of shop exercise had not come into vogue, when I was at Andover. 

* * * * " I do rejoice that this simple truth — that body and 

mind are neighbors, and that }''ou cannot suffer weeds to grow in the one with- 
out injuring the other — is beginning to be understood. May one not hope that 
the day is gone by, when a man can hardly claim to be called a student unless he 
wear these special marks, viz. a lily hand, a lady-like form, a pale face, stooping 
shoulders, and a faultering gait ? 

» » * " The laws of nature are too well established to permit us to 
destroy the balance without mischief. I have purchased this conviction too 
dearly, and have sacrifxced years of precious time, and nearly sacrificed my life, 
for the want of it. No money can make this loss, v.'liether real or imaginary, 
fully up. 

* * * ♦' In regard to your third question, a part of the answer must 
be theoretical. There can be no doubt to my mind, that regular exercise would 
do more towards producing strong intellectual efforts than all other things united. 
Shut up Bonaparte, and deprive liira of his severe daily exercise, and he can no 
longer form plans which all Europe thought impossible, and execute them 
before other minds could comprehend them. He is not the same man. He 
becomes the discontented, querulous, feverish being, that you find him — as he 
stands on the rock of St. Helena, reading to the world a most instructive lesson 
on human ambition, and human glory. 

" I suppose that keeping the body in a strong, vigorous state by habits of 
exercise, might, and would, prevent much of that feeling which is usually deno- 
minated refinement of taste, but which in fact is nothing more nor less than 
morbid sensibility. It is cutting round the limb of the tree, and thus producing 
one beautiful specimen of fruit, while all the rest of the tree is barren. Multi- 
tudes of morbid, sickening, corrupting writings, which poets, from Horace to 
Byron and Moore, have produced, would never have seen light, I believe, on the 
manual labor system. And where would have been the loss, save to the king, 
dom of darkness ? Who would not prefer the manly, vigorous, overpowering 
eloquence of Patrick Henry, to all the soft, seducing, charming ribaldry, under 
the name of poetry and sentiment, the world has ever seen ? There is one 



117 

waste of mind whicjli I do not recollect of seeing introduced in connection with 
this subject, bnt which regular exercise would, to a good degree cure. I mean 
reverie ; or, in plainer, homelier language, castle-building. There is no way of 
injuring the mind directly more surely, or more extensively, than this. And yet 
how common ! And what ought to be known and felt, is that the mind goes off 
and lives in these day-dreams, just in proportion as the body is weakened and 
unstrung, for want of proper attention. * ***** 

" A volume on this subject, suitable for the hand of students and professional 
men, would do immense good; but my evening is gone. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

J. TODD. 



Extract of a letter from the Hon. Thovias S. Grimke, of Charleston, S. C. 

"I did not become sensible of the importance of exercise to health, until after 
I went to Yale, in the spring of 1805. But 1 was soon convinced of the abso- 
lute necessity of such a plan ; and I pursued it steadily during my residence at 
the north. Perhaps I ought to mention, that my perseverance was due not only 
to a conviction of the obligation and expediency of the system, but likewise to 
the inexhaustible source of enjoyment which I found in the contemplation of the 
beauties of nature. These I studied as minutely and constantly, during my exer- 
cise, as the classics or mathematics during coUe^ije hours. I mention the circum. 
stance, because I found it a most valuable auxiliary in acquiring and preserving 
a habit so indispensable, above all to the student. I may also add, that I observed 
pretty steadily the rules of Boyse, one of the translators of King James' 
Bible : 1. To study standing or walking. 2. Not to study after it had become so 
dark, as to render it necessary to remove to a window ; and, 3. Never to go to 
bed with cold feet. For manj'' years after my return from college, 1 did not 
adhere to any regular system of exercise, and I suffered in consequence oj this 
neglect both in mind and in body. For some years past, I have resumed the habit, 
and still, pursue my college plan, with unquestionable benefit. In a word, I doubt 
whether I could have gone through college without the system of constant exer- 
cise ; and I am perfectly satisfied, that if still living I should now be a martyr to 
ill health and a broken, if not ruined constitution. * * * * 

Yours, respectfully, THOS. S. GRIMKE. 



Letter from B. Badger, Esq. late. Editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal, 

and the Neio- York Weekly Messenger. 

Dear. Sir — As you have desired me to give you a statement of the causes 
•which led to the loss of my health, and the means which I used to regain that 
inestimable blessing, I cheerfully comply with your request. 

The facts are briefly these : My occupation was that of a printer, and while I 
labored at the business, my health was good. So it was after I became an 
editor, so long as I devoted a part of my time to manual labor; but after I 
became the editor of "Zion's Herald," that paper having obtained an extensive 
circulation, and the committee of publication having provided for me a liberal 
salary, I gave my time exclusively to the duty of editing it. Shortly after this, 
ray health began to decline, gradually, and almost imperceptibly, until the dis. 
ease finally terminated in a confirmed nervous head-ache. As I could obtain no 
permanent relief, either from medical applications, traveling, or change of cli- 
mate, I relinquished my editorial duties altogether, with a view of trying tho 
effect of manual labor. Accordingly, in the month of August last, I selected 
a small sized printing press, and commenced operation as a pressman. The 
result has been entirely successful. In less than a month from the time I com. 



118 

menced, I was enabled to perform a full days work with ease. I have continued 
the practice daily, up to the present time, and my health is perfectly restored. 
Whether I could now endure much mental labor, I am not able to say, nor have 
I any great inclination at present to try. And were I to consult my own per- 
sonal comfort, I should continue to practice daily at the bar of the press. 
Yours, with sincere respect, 

B. BADGER. 



Extract of a letter from Professor Steele, of the Camden Institution, Georgia. 

In May of 1829, while in the junior class at Yale College, I engaged to teach 
school four months. Soon after commencing 1 found the school much larger 
than I had anticipated, and was obliged to labor night and day to discharge the 
duties of school, and keep up with my class in college. The result was, a pros- 
tration of body and mind. At the close of the term my physician remarked that 
if I did not take some measures immediately to restore my health I should not 
live six months. Convinced that this prostration was owing to the want of 
bodily exercise, I resolved to start on a journey, and walk till my health was 
restored. A class-mate of mine, who was also in bad health, agreed to accom- 
pany me. We accordingly swung our packs, bought a dog, took our rifles, and 
started. We passed from the Connecticut river to the Hudson, thence up Lake 
George and Champlain, crossed over from Plattsburg to the St. Lawrence, up the 
St. Lawrence, across Lake Ontario, to Niagara Falls, thence to Buffalo, and 
through the southern part of New-York, home. 

This distance of about twelve hundred miles, we performed in about seven 
weeks. The first day we were able to walk but ten miles ; and before we 
returned we could walk forty or forty-five with ease. Our health was perfectly 
restored ; our old companion, the dyspepsy, had left us on the road, and we could 
eat almost any thing but a gridiron. We were exposed to all kinds of weather, 
cold, hot, wet and dry, and received no effect from it, but a constant hardening 
of the physical constitution. 

In 1828 I engaged in teaching at St. Marys, Geo. The heat of the first sum- 
mer caused a general debility of body and mind. Contrary to a prevalent 
impression in that section of country, that much exercise is not beneficial in the 
heat of summer, I commenced a regular and rigorous course of exercise in a 
garden. The time devoted to it was from one hour and a half to two hours in 
the morning before breakfast, and frequently much more on Saturday. The 
result of this experiment was an astonishing increase of muscular power and a 
proportionate increase of mental vigor. This I pursued till the first of June 
last, when I removed from St. Mary's to my present situation. Here I com- 
menced with /our hours labor per day, two in the morning before breakfast, and 
two in the evening before tea. This course was continued till I lefl Georgia, in 
November, and the result was still an increase of physical power and mental 
energy. During the hottest and most unhealthy season, I was not sick a day, 
and never felt more vigor of body or mind on the White Mountains of New- 
Hampshire. From my own experience and observation I am decidedly of the 
opinion that a man will accomplish more mental labor in the latitude of 
Georgia, with four hours manual labor, than he can possibly do with less. 
I am, sir, very respectfully, Yours, 

ALVAH STEELE. 



Letter from the Rev. Austin Dickinson, Editor of the National Preacher, N. Y. 

Mr. Weld — In reply to your request for my thoughts on institutions for uni- 
ting manual labor with study, I would say briefly, that, to some extent, I have 
already given them to the public — in 1825, and in subsequent years. The suc- 
cessful experiments of others, as well as the renovaition of my own health by 



119 

appropriate exercise and living, have only deepened my conviction of the impor- 
tance of such institutions. They should be established in connection with all 
our colleges and seminaries, as well as independently, in other places. 

The great necessity of some kind of systematic bodily exercise for students 
and professional men, is now generally admitted. And it would seem to be 
impeaching the wisdom of the Creator, to suppose we are so constituted that 
no directly useful and productive exercise can be substituted for mere walk- 
ing, jumping, or gymnastic sports. Conscience, then, as well as invention, 
must be quickened on this point. 

In order to the complete success of a manual labor institution, it seems to me 
essential, that the students, as well as teachers, generally, be such as have been 
accustomed to labor. For to this class of men the labor of three or four hours 
daily would be only a pleasant relaxation, and would never unfit them for study, 
as it sometimes does, at first, those of delicate habits. Let it not be supposed, 
however, that I would dissuade invalid students from joining such institutions, 
and laboring as they can bear — observing "temperance in all things." 

Another arrangement favorable to such an institution, especially if the labor 
be chiefly farming, might be, a long vacation in the winter, when work is not so 
conveniently found, and when the students may find useful employment in 
teaching. 

Very much might be at once done, and ought to be done, for aiding the manual 
labor system, in ways not immediately connected with any public institution estab. 
lished for the purpose. For instance, an enterprising mechanic might say to a 
dozen young men, or an extensive manufacturer might say to fifty, more or less, 
" I will employ you three or four hours daily, and in return afford you the means 
of living and tuition." And in many cases an extensive farmer, or several far- 
mers united, might do the same. 

Indeed, in almost every respectable country town, twenty or more young men 
might, without any parade or delay for building, say to each other, " We will at 
once engage a recitation room, a tutor, books, &c. and agree with our parents, 
guardians, or neighbors, to work a reasonable time daily, and thus, at home, 
commence without delay a liberal education." 

Such movements, made in a proper spirit, would help to elevate all our semina. 
ries of learning, and lift up our whole population in the scale of being, and, with 
God's blessing, hasten the renovation of a world. Be our motto, then, " Instead 
of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou may est make princes in all th 
earth.'''' 

With ardent wishes for your success, I am, sir, 

Yours, truly, 

A. DICKINSON. 
New-York, March, 1833. 



The following is an extract from a letter written by a clergyman in the state of 
Maine. The name of the writer is withheld at his own request. 

***««* Previous to the completion of my 22d year, my winters 
had been spent in the school room as a scholar or teacher, and my summers in 
hard labor on the farm. During the first three months at the academy my board 
was chopped out before and after school — progress in study satisfactory — food 
and sleep refreshing — health perfect, and constitution as well prepared to go 
through the labors of July and August on the farm as usual. 

After laboring two months, a second term of study was in circumstances less 
favorable for manual labor, and exercise was irregular. 

The consequence in a few weeks were indigestion, debility, excited nerves, 
drowsiness, unquiet sleep, sourness and disorder of the stomacn, a physician and 
the loss of a week from studies. Since this lesson (the most important in my 
course) I have devoted a portion of every term to labor, and have never prospered 
better in study than when laboring regularly four hours in a day. 



120 

» * * During five years, tesides performing rauch'^labor without compeo' 
sation, I received 175 dollars for labor performed during the terras of study. 
Have walked in the same time, including terms and vacations, between eight and 
ten thousand miles. With the exception of a week already alluded to, and a 
Blight interruption occasioned by 'aiccident, have not lost a day with sickness. 
Find my constitution as firm now, and as well prepared to endure hardships as 
before commencing mf studies. 

So far as my observation relates to the management of students in the seminary 
with which I was connected for five years, the results can be expressed in a few 
words. Most of the students labored more or less. It might be invidious, and 
might convey a wrong impression, to express the opinion that those who per- 
formed most labor made the greatest progress in study. But it is safe to say, 

1. That those who labored most made better progress when laboring from two 
to four hours in a day, than when laboring much less. 

2. Tha* they were more cheerfiil, even, and happy in their feelings and de- 
portment. 

3. They were much more resolute in bearing the heat, or cold, or any hardship 
which required personal effort or courage. 

4. Thej' were more ready to make personal sacrifices for the purpose of doing 
good to others, or what is the same thing, were more vigorous and consistent 
Christians. Yours truly. 



The following letter from a distinguished professor in one of our colleges to a 
young friend has just come into my possession. It is inserted here with the 
belief that hundreds of our students need the plain preaching of its stirring 
appeals. 

I am much surprised, my dear brother, to hear that you are deaf to all the 
•arguments, and dead to all the intreaties, which your friends around you are 
able to employ, to bring you to feel the importance of systematic, vigorous, mus> 
cular exercise. * * * * You will not say, that facts are wanting to show, 
that in every respect, muscular exercise is indispensable to the largest attain' 
ments and greatest usefulness of the strident. * * * * 

* « * what right have you to expose that body, which you have 
given up as a "temple of the Holy Spirit," to the multiplied and frightful evils, 
which indolence, by which I mean the neglect of muscular exercise, must infiict 
upon it ? Think of this, before it shall crumble into a heap of ruins, crushing 
and burying and destroying the intellectual and the moral man. 

You may think that I employ strong language. How can I help using strong 
language on such a subject ? I need not repeat my history in your ears. It is 
already familiar to you. In speaking of the importance of muscular exercise to 
the student, you know I speak as from the grave. The health and strength I 
now enjoy, you need not be told, I owe under God to the muscular discipline, to 
which for eight or ten years, I have conscientiously and constantly subjected 
myself. With such an experience as I have had, how can I be silent, when I 
see a beloved friend courting death in the very form, from which, with a great 
deal of ado, I just escaped ? I cannot, I will not be silent. Take care, then, 
you are on enchanted ground. To slumber there, is to die I 

Rouse up, my dear friend, to a provident, wakeful regard to your " house of 
clay." As long as you keep this in good repair, you may hope to enjoy vigor of 
mind, and a healthful flow of the affections. You may encounter difficulties, 
overcome obstacles, bid defiance to the thousand embarrassments which cripple 
the poor dyspeptic. You may hope to live, to live long, and be usef .1. And I 
know, that to such a suggestion you cannot be dead. The facts necessary to 
sustain these appeals are too fully and obviously within your reach, to require 
specification of me. Re-examine them ; weigh them ; make them the basis of 
practical conclusions ; and I shall not despair of your dying a better death, than 
that of the puicide. 

Yours, affectionately, . 



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